Master of Games
by Nintega-soft
Summary: A nuzlocke of every main series pokemon game, I completed the challenge and was quite proud myself. The Master of Games was impressed too, and he flung me into...recognizable land, for his own amusement. The real challenge was just beginning. *Not a nuzlocke challenge*
1. Chapter 1

I had spent my life playing it. I would beat it, restart, rinse and repeat. How could I help it, it was a great game. I was eight when I played Emerald, then I moved to the rest of the series in record time. I was strategic, I won a few tournaments, completed nuzlockes, and bested some of the most talented players in the world.

It was comfort. A consistent love of mine that was the only thing in my life that, without a doubt, every single day I could depend on. I didn't know my real parents, I didn't even know my race. As far as I knew I might've been Puerto Rican or Dominican, but that was it. I loved my adopted parents, but it just wasn't the same.

I excelled in my academics, A and B student most of the time. I had bad people skills unless I was communicating through the web, in which case I was the opposite of an introvert. There was so much time on my hands that I could waste my time completing a nuzlocke challenge of every pokemon game without losing a single pokemon. This was the day that I completed the final one. I had to find a new way to waste my life now.

I cursed to myself, the screen flashed and the 3DS made an ear piercing screeching sound before it turned black. This happened every single damned time. Every time I beat the game, the credits would roll, then shortly after it would crash. It was getting old; I was hoping to look back on all of my trophies in fond reminiscence, but the painfully annoying game was making this impossible for me. I sighed and got my clothes on, it was time for work anyway.

The building shook. I thought it was the rumbling of the train. Or a hurricane. But it continued, and I got worried. The curtains blew furiously. I ran to the window and shut it and switched the lock. I ran into the corner farthest from it, but the apartment was still shaking.

I quivered; my heart was beating faster than a drum solo. My foster father wasn't home at the time, he was at work and soon I would be too. I worked as an intern at a small clinic, and I figured that it would help me further my goal of becoming a doctor, or at least a nurse, in the far future. I was home alone, and I had no goddamn idea what was happening. If someone was there with me, at least I would know that I wasn't batshit insane.

The apartment was shaking more violently than it was before. I ran to the door, but it wouldn't budge. The wind was pushing it closed. _I_ even struggled to stand up against the strong air current. I mustered up my strength and ran over to the bed frame. I held onto the bar for dear life and futilely screamed for help, but no one answered.

My arms grew weak, my fingers felt like they were gonna break. I scrunched my eyes shut and hissed in pain. The gust was carrying me and I was blowing like a flag. The bed-frame scooted across the wooden floor; it made a screeching noise that made me cringe. My wrist gave out against my will, I let go.

I expected to break my back when I hit the wall. But I melded with it. I went in easier than water, even though it was made of concrete. I could even breath in it, but I wasn't worried about that. It felt as if I was being swallowed up by a giant serpent and it's saliva was washing over me as I went further and further down its monstrous throat. Maybe that was how zebra felt when they were being taken down by a hoard of hyena. They fought and fought, but eventually they figured there was no stopping what was coming to them. I stopped struggling and let sleep embrace me.

 _XxXxXxXx_

I woke in a daze. My body ached and I laid in a meadow on a grassy patch. I attempted to sit up groggily and rubbed my eyes. Where was I? I couldn't for the life of me remember how I got there. I suddenly got a burst of energy, and shot up to my feet.

The luscious flowers surrounding me on the grass were moving like there was a tornado approaching, but there wasn't even the slightest breeze. I flinched for a moment, I remembered the heavy winds in my room before this happened…was it a hurricane? I remembered flying into the wall, but my memory had a hole in it, like someone just cut some parts out of it.

An explosion threw me backwards; I fell on my ass a few feet away. I felt up my body for injuries, but I was okay from what I could feel. I got back up on my feet and looked at the spot where I was standing. A black specter floated a few feet off of the ground. It looked like the grim reaper, but eventually its robe turned into a black hoodie, and its black figure became more humanoid. The hood was pulled up over it's face, creating a black shadowy void over its features. It wore black cargo pants and black combat boots with black gloves covering its hands.

I thought I was going to die, and he was the grim reaper about to take away my soul. Judging by its voice it was male. The voice was deep and gruff, but oddly was very calm. "That's fucking disgusting; did you really piss your pants?" He laughed, I looked down on my shorts and low and behold there was a huge piss stain. I didn't remember pissing my pants, when I woke up I was completely dry. How did he do that?

"You need some clean clothes, you nasty piece of shit." He fanned his face and feigned illness. I looked down and my outfit had been completely morphed. My clothes were now the same as his, combat boots, gloves, and a black hoodie. But I had a black fitted cap on my head, unlike him.

"That's a lot more fashionable now, if I do say so myself. But piss on yourself again and I won't replace them." He skated over to me like the ground was ice.

"What are you?" I stuttered, my mouth agape.

"You mean _who_ am I? I am...a being…who likes to watch a good show once in a while," The void-faced man said vaguely.

"That doesn't really answer my question," I grumbled. If he had a face I somehow knew that he would be smirking.

"My name wouldn't exactly explain what my intentions are, would it?" He pointed out.

"Then how about you take it upon yourself to tell me?" I asked. He laughed hardily; he stepped up close to me and put an arm on my shoulder.

"Call me… Mog." He uttered deeply.

"What kind of name is 'Mog.'?" I questioned. He took his hand off of my shoulder and placed it to his side.

"It's an acronym." He snorted. "The Master of Games is my title." He informed me.

"Alright, 'Master of Games,' why am I here? Where did you take me?" I asked, he turned around and faced me. I looked into the void in place of his face. It was black as night, and seemed to swirl in his hood. I quickly looked away, I thought I'd be absorbed into the blackness.

"You should probably find this place familiar, does Fifth Isle Meadow ring a bell to you?" It sounded very familiar; it was on the tip of my tongue.

"Is that in Europe somewhere? I'm not good with geography." He laughed at my answer; I was beginning to think someone was pulling a prank on me. But the clothes thing was too real, no one could fake that.

"More like Kanto," I laughed out loud. But he couldn't have been more serious.

"Kanto? You mean like that place in Japan?" I said dumbly.

"I mean like in the pokémon games. Y'know, the ones you grew up playing?" My heart skipped a beat at the mention, how did he know such a specific detail about my life? A better question would be what the hell did he mean by I was in the pokémon games?

"I'm not exactly following you. So you just teleported me to the pokémon universe? So if I go into that forest over there I'll encounter a beedrill hive?" I said sarcastically. Mog sighed and walked forward a few steps, and then the world went black again.

 _XxXxXxXx_

We materialized in an exotic jungle. Everything was green and luscious, much different than the concrete jungles I was used to in Jersey. I turned my head to my right and found Mog standing next to me. I yelped and defensively jumped back in alarm, eventually my body settled after seeing who it was, but I was still very cautious.

"Now we're in Viridian Forest, I'm sure you're familiar." He said.

"Suuure…" I snorted; Mog looked at me with frustration.

"So I can make clothes _materialize_ on your body, but you don't think I can do this?" He asked rhetorically.

"Inter-dimensional teleportation and manifesting clothes is a HUGE jump." I answered anyway.

"Good point, but you'll be choking on your words soon enough." He laughed and faded away, leaving nothing in his wake.

I shivered at it, I was under the impression by that point that I was in an incredibly realistic lucid dream. None of what was happening was even remotely lifelike. I walked into the dense overgrowth, swatting away small insects that got in my way. I brushed the long banana leaves out of my face and ducked under outstretching tree limbs. I coughed as a gnat flew down my throat, and sneezed when one went in my nose.

I mumbled curses to myself, I liked the outdoors, but I wasn't fond of it enough to have a three course meal worth of bugs flying down my throat. I groaned in annoyance, I thought back to what Mog said, if I really was in the pokémon world, would that even really be that bad? I loved that game my whole life and I had dreamt of being magically teleported to the world as a child. But as I grew up I only looked at the game as just that; a game.

I looked down at my feet and saw an extended banana leaf on the ground under my foot. It was placed oddly on the dirt, it was green as the rest of the forest, but was lying on the ground so you'd expect for it to be rotten. I leaned down and rubbed my fingers across the leaf. I smelled my fingers; it had a sweet scent, almost like tree sap. I traced the odd leaf with my eyes; at the end was a big yellow pitcher plant. It was large, about up to my waist and wide enough that I wouldn't be able to wrap my arms around it if I tried.

The plant had a pink rim on the opening; I walked over to it, and peered inside of the mouth. The stench made my nose scrunch up, and my eyes watered. I peeked over the edge. It had a big yellow rat inside of it, its fur was mostly decomposed by the acidic liquid in the carnivorous pitcher plant's mouth, but I was not delusional as to what the creature was.

I jumped back away from the plant and yelped. If that was what I had thought it was, then Mog was right. I hauled ass in the opposite direction, and didn't look back. This shit was real, and I couldn't fool myself anymore. Mog was obviously something else; something i'd never seen before.

My running was halted as I crashed into an invisible barrier. I fell flat on my ass, I jumped back on my feet and kicked the barricade. The familiar specter appeared and formed into the black hooded man whom I was even more frightened of than before. He cackled and I suddenly had a migraine that made me clutch my head in my hands. My anger shifted into tranquility and my heart rate calmed. I no longer felt the need to fight back against the man; I knew that I was being emotionally manipulated by him, but I couldn't find myself to be angered by it at all. I didn't even feel like talking.

"I told you I wasn't lying, didn't I? Mog knows best," he said condescendingly, I just stared at him.

"I was gonna let you about your way, I needed to prove to you that this is _real,"_ he stressed. "I'm the Master of Games; I'm in charge of the entertainment of humanity to distract from hardship around surrounding them. I'm nigh omnipotent; I can beam through dimensions with a thought.

"But I'm not gonna explain to you the entire concept of dimensional travel, that isn't what you're here for."

"Even I, Master of Games, becomes bored of life when given so much power. I've existed since humanities inception. way before pokémon, I was around back when people were rolling rocks around inside of caves to keep themselves busy," The deity joked. I stayed quiet, my mind was still running on the strange forced high that made me indifferent to my own emotions.

"I created a challenge; one of my favorite games is 'Pokémon.' Ever since it was created I became enamored with the concept. I'm sure you can relate," I completely agreed with him.

"The challenge was to beat a flawless nuzlocke of every main series pokémon title created, and you will be deemed worthy enough for the real game. You fulfilled it." He cackled, his deep voice echoed in my ears.

My mood changed once more, now that I could speak I asked, "So what about my family in the real world?"

"Time is a lot slower on Dimension 2814 than it is on Dimension 3923, you'll be fifty years old by the time one minute passes there. That just gives you more time to entertain me." The hooded specter explained.

"And what exactly do I have to do to 'entertain you'?" I asked, standing up and dusting myself off.

"Get some gym badges, beat the elite four, I don't give a damn. Just don't die like the rest, believe it or not, the last guy died within the first few minutes of coming here," he snorted. "He was mauled by a rabid linoone, those things are _nasty_."

"After I do that, then what?" I asked him.

"You either go home, or stay here," He told me. I frowned.

"Can I at least get a few million dollars to pay my way through medical school?"

"If that's what you want I can arrange for it happen." The Master of Games offered. "So, is that a deal? Not that you really have much of a choice, fit challengers don't really come about often and I won't just let such a good one go." He said.

"So, when do I start? Do you have a starter pokémon for me?" I asked.

"See, that's the thing; giving you a pokémon would be too easy. You'll have to do it yourself," the specter chuckled.

"At least give me a manual or something, it's like you _want_ me to be killed," I deadpanned. I heard thunder in the sky, and a sudden downpour started. Mog somehow stayed completely dry despite the rain, I, however, became soaking wet.

"I gave you a hoodie and some waterproof boots, is that not enough?" He prodded. "Be lucky I gave you that much, at least now you won't get hypothermia."

"Here, you're gonna need this." He held out his palm and a pokeball materialized in his hand. He tossed me the ball; I caught it clumsily and shoved it in my pocket. "You'll need this too; you won't be able to train without one of these." He pulled a card from his pocket and pitched it to me. I attempted to catch it but failed, he laughed at my pathetic attempt.

I picked up the card; it had my birth date, a fake birthplace, and my name, 'Floyd North,' in blue letters on the top.

"You'll have to step up your game, slacker, if you wanna survive. Catching a card will probably be the easiest thing you do today," Mog cackled. His body began to seemingly dissolve. He spoke one final sentence before he disappeared. "This'll be exciting, trust me."

 **For new readers, this isn't the original version of this chapter, I fixed some of the mistakes I made originally. Also, this was gonna be a nuzlocke story at first, but I came up with what I feel is a better idea. Hope you enjoyed the first chapter. Please review/follow/favorite if you wanna see more.**


	2. Chapter 2

I was wandering through the jungle with nothing but the clothes on my back and the balls between my legs. Most of the pokémon I had seen the most were not very different than regular animals; spearow looked for the most part like regular sparrow. The games portrayed Viridian Forest as being relatively small maze with harmless bug pokémon roaming in the woods. That wasn't what I saw, pokémon that weren't even _from_ Kanto were hidden in the vast wilderness. A small blue and white squirrel scurried up a tree; I suspected it to be a pachirisu, which to my knowledge was a Sinnoh pokémon.

It made more sense the more I thought about it. In my world, you could occasionally see animals from different countries in yours because of migration or because they were an invasive species introduced because of humans. It was only logical that could happen in this new world. Pokémon that are extremely common in one region should somehow find a way to make it to Kanto. I was prepared to see things like sentret, poochyena or purloin as they were annoyingly commonplace in their respective regions.

I had only one pokeball, and I had to make it count otherwise I would be next to done. Other than that, I really didn't want a pokémon you'd see every day, I wanted a rare gem. Something _strong_ and _noble_ , but most of all, I wanted something dignified. I didn't want to go into the league with a _rattata_ for god-sakes.

After walking for a bit longer, I heard rushing water. I stood still for a moment, attempting to pinpoint the noise past the sound of rain. I jogged to my left for about five minutes and came upon a sandy beach; the rapids were higher than normal, if only due to the weather.

It was clear and rushing, so it was safe to drink. I took the opportunity and dropped to my knees, I dipped my hands into the water, and by using my palms as a cup I scarfed down the nourishing liquid. I saw some small blue tadpoles near the bottom, latched onto the rocks eating algae. They were still despite the fast-moving river. That showed how much more powerful the creatures were in this world, I probably wouldn't be able to _stand up_ in that water.

In my peripherals I saw rustling in the wilderness behind me; I walked towards it, hoping to be able to catch a pokémon in the grass. A stared into the bushes for a while, I noticed a quadruped-black pokémon sprinting in the trees in the distance, I couldn't see its species, and I just knew it was a lot different than anything I had seen by that point.

A few yards away a large black hyena was staring at me. I couldn't identify its species, but it looked dangerous. I slowly backed away, and it kept watching me. I turned tail and ran away, and I figured I was in the clear, I found a tall tree with dense leaves that kept the ground under it from getting wet. I sat down on the mud under the tree and leant against the stump. I squinted my eyes; the black pokémon had followed me there.

I became convinced that it was stalking me. I attempted to do a repeat of the first time, but another black hyena stood on my other side. I stood up while staring at the second hyena, I turned my head a nudge and saw another hyena, but this one was closer. So close, in fact, I felt its breath on my face. I yelped and sprinted past it, I made it about ten feet before I tripped; I struggled to get up and saw that the hyena hadn't moved an inch.

It cackled, and I looked around and saw I was _surrounded_ by them; I didn't have a chance at fleeing at all. Their ruby red eyes stared at me in ravenous hunger, and their bodies tensed every time I so much as twitched. Growls erupted from their voices, and I shivered, a few of them bickered and yipped to each other, no doubt arguing about who got the first pick of my meat. I put up my fist, and dug my pokeball out of my pocket. The first one barked at me, it strutted up to me with its teeth bared, the pokémon slowly picked up pace, and its walk became a charge.

It vaulted at me, and the rest of them prepared to pile on. I slammed the ball on his head as soon as he got within reach, an explosion clapped and the ball erupted with a brilliant white light. The unfamiliar sound frightened the other mightyena, and they fled away. I held the full pokeball in my hands, I had caught a mightyena. My panic settled into excitement, I never used a mightyena before, and I certainly never used one in a Kanto run before.

I exited that particular area; I didn't want to stay there in those things territory if they decided they wanted to pay me a visit again. Judging by the way he lunged at me, I didn't even want to poke him with a 10 foot pole. I wasn't entirely sure if I could even fight a Rottweiler, let alone a hyena who could crush my skull with one bite.

I hurriedly sped back towards the river; the rain had gone down to a sprinkle however I was still soaking wet. When I made it to the rapids I was at a crossroads. I couldn't remember whether or not you were supposed to go up or downstream to find civilization. I played rock paper scissors with myself, and guess what, I won. I decided to go up stream, the walk was tiring, I eventually stopped and got myself some water occasionally, but never stopped for more than 5 minutes at a time.

My stomach rumbled, I wasn't a goddamn grizzly bear, so I wasn't gonna get down on my knees and plunge my face in the water for fish, I was a human being with dignity, I would never do something like that.

I dug around for a bit, finding some small shell fish and pigged out on them, then I collected a few for later. I wasn't too sure on what they were, but judging by their colors they could've been shellder or clamperl, just freshwater versions.

They didn't taste very good, especially since they were raw with no lime or salt. But I was hungry, I slurped up the shells in quick-succession, which in hindsight wasn't a very good idea. I ended up throwing up the contents of my stomach, then I drank a fill of water and decided to hit the sack. There would be no fire to sleep next to, no warmth other than what was coming from my body. Even the hoodie didn't help, and I had a rather sleepless night.

 _XxXxXxX_

I woke up in the middle of the night several times, bushes rustling, giant moths fluttering, owls hooting. The water rushed and smacked up against rocks, keeping me from slumber with the thought of drowning. It was either that or the middle of the forest, and I wouldn't in a million years risk the mightyena's friends coming back for revenge. I didn't have a pokeball this time to save me.

Something darted in my peripherals, but I turned my head and there was nothing but pitch black darkness. I climbed to my feet and shook, it was freezing even though it just turned fall. I still didn't know why he didn't give me at least a sleeping bag, or fire starter kit or something.

I grabbed a random thick branch. It was big enough that it wouldn't break after I cracked it over somethings skull, so it would be perfect to defend my self with. It made me rest easier, even if it wouldn't do much against anything bigger than a wolf.

I spent the night thinking about my mightyena. Mightyena were hyena-like, they were naturally pack hunters. Pack animals were very social, so once I built up it's trust it would become a loyal partner to me. That most definitely wouldn't come easy however, it would attempt to eat my hands dozens of times before it got comfortable enough to eat _from_ my hand. I decided against giving it a name until I knew it's personality, I didn't want to name it Pumpkins and find out it wanted to eat me.

Slowly, the grips of unconsciousness pulled me in, and I drifted to sleep. As much as I didn't want to, there was a point where I could no longer keep my eyes open.

 **I'm gonna start calling this whole story, MOG, for short, because Master of Games is wayy to much to type. This chapter looks like a wilderness survival guide, , Review/Follow/Favorite if you enjoy.**


	3. Chapter 3

**I deleted this chapter because there was still a few things I didn't like about it. It's a bit different this time around, maybe a little better.**

I woke up freezing cold with goosebumps running up my spine. I huddled up on the little red orb in my hands, which produced the only bit of warmth I could get. I crawled to my feet, hugging myself in the process.

I had left my world around early October, so in a few months (depending on how the climate in Kanto was) it would be snowing. I collected myself and continued walking up-stream towards where I believed I would find civilization. I trudged up a rocky hill, it felt like I was walking on ice cubes. If I didn't have those boots on, I would've surely slipped into the river to my demise.

My legs were aching already, and the cold started to make me more sluggish with every movement.

I finally reached the top of the slope, and I dropped to my knees, gasping for air. I forced myself to my feet, though my legs were pleading for me to stop. I was tired and _very_ hungry. I knew that if Pewter was at least somewhat like my world, they would have some type of food there. I tried to look and see if there were any buildings in the distance, but the sky was so foggy I could barely see the birds flying up there.

My thoughts wandered to my mightyena, she was sure to attack me if she was released from her ball. I knew I wouldn't be able to tame her anytime soon, she was a wild animal. In Jersey, if you were to just pick up a stray pit-bull, it would try and tear your arm off. This was a hyena. She didn't even have a glimpse of humanity, and on top of that, she was likely ten times as strong as a stray pit-bull.

I breathed hot air into my palms. My teeth clattered. I could barely focus my thoughts, my vision was blurring. My legs were throbbing, and I was flat-out exhausted. I fell to my back, as my spine crashed with the ground, sending waves of pain throughout my body. I squeezed my eyes and moaned in agony. The trees seemingly dancing in my vision, a little red and white ball rolled towards the water, but was stopped by a large stone. I heard a click, my heart dropped. it flashed white, and exploded. A blinding light blasted from the sphere, I shrieked in alarm and fear.

As the light faded, a figure stood in its wake. The large hyena looked stunned, but soon collected itself. It glowered at me, and snarled. I timidly attempted to scrabble away, but the pokemon pinned my arms to the ground. Her teeth were sharp as nails, and she didn't hesitate to bare them at me.

Her fangs attempted to clamp down on my head, but I was able to maneuver past them. I winced and howled as her teeth dug into my shoulder. Her strength was enough to pull me up, all the while burying her incisors into my shoulder. My adrenaline pumped through my veins, and I swung my fists into her ribs. The bitch hollered and jumped away, her growls becoming far more guttural. She leapt at me, similarly to how she did during our first encounter. I rolled out of the way, as I attempted to recover from the tumble, she bit the back of my shin and pulled it hard enough for me to fall forward with a thud. Seeing her opening, she jumped on my back and again, viciously tore into my shoulder

I crawled to my feet, but kept getting pulled back down by her immense power. I could feel the blood rushing from my body through my arm. My consciousness was fading. As my sight was blurring, the last thing I saw was a figure rushing up to me from the corner of my eye. It tackled the Mightyena to the ground. I blacked out.

 _XxXxXxXx_

I felt warmth and the first thought that crossed my mind was that I was in some type of omnipotent beings' embrace. Which I didn't have much fondness of considering my last encounter with an omnipotent being threw me in this freaky-realm in the first place. I glanced around my surroundings and saw vents that pumped heat into the stay. I was tucked up in cozy red cotton blankets. The lodge had plain red carpets, and a large pokeball pattern right above the t.v. It looked a whole lot like a hotel.

I looked down at my shoulder and saw a bandage covering it. My shin was wrapped up too. All of my clothes were washed and folded at the foot of the bed. My shoes were on the floor. I climbed off of the bed, despite my body's protest. My injured limbs were being irritated by my clothes, but I pushed past it and slipped them on.

My eyes scanned the room for something as small as a crumb, and they settled upon a mini-fridge in the corner. My body felt a burst of energy as I rushed over to the refrigerator I threw the door open. I looked around for something, anything, to eat. I picked up a muffin and shoved it down my throat, and slammed the fridge shut. I noticed a note on the door, and tore it off. I read the message.

 _Hello, glad you're awake. I'm down stairs waiting for you._

 _I'm wearing a black turtle-neck and a leather jacket. Your mightyena,_

 _(The one that was mauling you in the forest…) is in the center, being_

 _treated by the nurses._ _I'll explain everything else to you down there, Floyd_

-Raymond

I deduced from his note that I was likely in a pokemon center. I became giddy, awaiting my meeting with nurse joy. Despite my circumstances I became thrilled at the thought. I wondered what the center would look like. Would it be tiny like it was in the games, or would it be colossal like a gymnasium? So I stepped out of the room, and I saw an entire hall filled with doors on each side of the walls. I walked down the hall until I saw a set of stairs. I walked down the long flight with an aching leg, but the idea of more food waiting for me was too good for me to stop.

When I finally made it down there, I was admittedly unsurprised by the bottom floor. A few people were in the lounging area, resting on top of red comforters. It wasn't by any means colossal, but it was much bigger than it was in the games. The room was about 50x60 and the ceiling was maybe 17 feet from the ground. I looked around for a guy wearing a black turtle-neck and a leather jacket, and when my eyes settled upon him, I wasn't surprised by him. I would've completely missed him if I had not been told what he'd looked like, his face and build were average. The only thing about him that stood out _was_ his leather jacket.

"Hey Floyd, glad you're awake." He spoke in English, which was odd to me. I wonder if they called it English or 'Kantonese' or 'Kantoan' or something.

"I'm guessing you're the guy that left that note. How long was I out?" I sat down next to him. I was a little bit cautious of him, considering I knew nothing of him as a person. But considering the fact that he saved me from being eaten alive by a mightyena, I felt he couldn't possibly be all bad.

"Yup, i'm Raymond. You were out for only about 7 hours. They gave you this sleep inducing medicine to help you heal. Guess it worked." Raymond chuckled.

"How in the hell did you get me back here so fast? I was in the middle of a forest." I pondered. He laughed at my question. I guess it was a fairly silly question, but I didn't know that at the time.

"We were only about an hour away from town, haha."He flashed a smile at me, he had a silver canine tooth that was barely noticeable unless you really focused on it.

"I was an hour away? Really? I thought I was gonna die in those woods, but I was an hour away from town. God I feel stupid."

"It's not your fault. You were born that way, Floyd." Raymond deadpanned. I blankly stared at him, trying to think of a good comeback. Seeing this, he changed the subject.

"That mightyena of yours has quite the superiority complex. She nipped me on the hand when I tried to wrestle her off of you." He rubbed a finger that was wrapped in a band-aid."I used to have one like that, mine tried to do that on a wild Machoke, she got her ribs broken. Needless to say, she never tried it again." He told.

"Say, how do you know my name?" I asked suspiciously, I narrowed my eyes at him, to which he responded with a grin.

"I know more than just your name, Floyd." What did that mean? Did he know where I came from? If anyone knew about my past they would surely turn me in, and I didn't want to know what they'd do to me once they found me.

"I took your trainer card, I know your birthday and your hometown to. How did you get from Lavender all the way to Viridian?" He questioned. I sighed in relief, he only knew the miscellaneous information from the trainer card.

"Well, I uh...I was born in Lavender, but I was raised by my father in Viridian. That's where I began my journey." I lied. He nodded his head in understanding, he bought it.

"Uh-huh...and I noticed you didn't have anymore pokemon on your person. Was that mightyena your starter or something?"

"Yup, why, is that a bad thing?" I queried. It couldn't have been uncommon for people to have mightyena's as starters, seeing as they weren't really _that_ strong.

"It's terrible, actually. You would've died had I not been patrolling the forest. Who the hell would've given a child a full grown mightyena?" He threw his hands in the air in anger.

"I caught it myself…" I squeaked. The trainer cocked his head to the side.

"How in Arceus' name did you catch a mightyena without any other pokemon to weaken it with." Raymond looked at me like I grew a second head. "Actually, you know what, it doesn't matter. You need to find someone to help you tame it. I recommend a dark type specialist. If you don't do that, then I'd say get rid of it." He said bluntly.

"I can't afford a specialist, but I really like mightyena as a pokemon, are you sure there is no other way to break her?" I pleaded. He frowned and placed his fingers on the bridge of his nose. The older trainer sighed and looked at me.

"Well, I know one way to train dark types that might work for her. Negative reinforcement." He reluctantly answered.

"What do you mean?" I prodded him for information.

"Dark types feed off of negative energy, the only way to train them is by being as harsh and fierce as possible. If you're nice to them, they will see you as feeble and weak. Being barbaric towards them means they will see you as their superior. But that method is dangerous, as some pokemon might take this the wrong way and see you as a threat." He clarified. I kept in mind his lesson, knowing that I might need it in the future. "I'd say you should buy a weapon of some sort just in case that happens."

"Don't you remember? I said I was flat-out broke. I don't have a penny to my name." I pointed out frustratedly. He fished in his back pocket, and pulled out his wallet.

"Penny?"

"It's a saying where I come from." I recovered.

"Here you go." He handed me a few square shaped yellow bills. They each had a picture of a moltres on them, and a number on the top corner. The number on each of them read '50'.

"That's two-hundred crowns. I think a good club shouldn't cost more than 50 crowns. Use the rest to buy yourself some common-sense." He said with a straight face. "I would've given you more, but I had to pay for your personal-treatment." My rescuer grumbled.

"Why would you go to such a length to help me?" I asked.

"Don't worry about it, it's fine. That's my job, I'm a Kanto Ranger." I thought it was a coincidence that he just so happened to stumble upon me in the middle of the woods; or I guess I was more towards the end of the woods, considering I was an hour away.

"I'd love to stick around and chat, kid, but I gotta go. I'm about to go back on duty. I only came by to check on you, and since you're okay, the nurses will handle the rest." He threw up deuces, and turned around to leave out of the door, but halted himself and turned around. Pulling something from his pocket which looked like an i.d.

"Oh yeah, I almost forgot to give this back to you. I wrote my number down on it." Raymond handed over my trainer card, I gave him my gratification and then my partings, and he finally left.

I went over to the pokemon center counter and spoke to the young lady behind it. She didn't look much like Nurse Joy; she was a red headed twenty-something, she greeted me with a smile.

"I have a mightyena in your possession, do I have any paperwork to fill out before I retrieve her? Because i'd like to get her out of here so I can explore the town." I requested, my mind wondering to my pokemon.

"No, that's not needed. You're in our database. You're Floyd North, here is your mightyena," she reached into her desk drawer and pulled out my mightyena's poke ball and handed it to me. I cupped it in my hands, my eyes fixated on her ball. The nurse spoke up.

"You're lucky to have that mightyena. Judging by her size and aggressiveness, she was likely the alpha of her old pack. We also made sure to give her all the necessary shots that are required to take part in the Pokemon League." The woman informed me.

"Thanks for that, say, do you have a map of Pewter? I've never been here before and i'd like to know where i'm going." I questioned.

"Yes we do, you should see a bookshelf right by the door where you were just standing by your friend." She pointed to the map sign right above the shelf.

"Oh thanks, well have a good day." I turned and walked out of the door. I picked up two maps, a map of the region as a whole, and a map of the roads of Pewter City.

As I stepped outside, I took in my surroundings. The roads were made of brick. The buildings were made of brick. Everything in that town was boring except for the things I would experience whilst in it.

 **Long while since my last update, I had computer problems, but now i'm back on the ball. Please review/favorite/follow.**


	4. Chapter 4

I stumbled through the town looking for some type of shopping center. I would barely see any life roaming the streets, and the only movement was the occasional plastic bag floating in the wind. The brick path was completely vacant, yet all the stores were open, and their owners were waiting inside for customers.

I looked down at my map once more. It said that the nearest store was 'Multi-Store, Everything You May Need, Right Thru our Doors.' Which was three blocks from me. It was pretty like to a KMart or Target. It would most likely have what I needed, a knife, maybe some clothes, some food, matches, and a backpack. I knew those items should be there, it would be stupid if they weren't, seeing as it advertised itself as a convenience store.

My stomach was rumbling like an earthquake, my mouth watered at the thought of being able to finally have a meal in over 16 hours. It propelled me to keep going, even though I wanted to eat the gum off of the brick road.

 _XxXxXxXx_

When I arrived in the store, it wasn't as vacant as the rest of the city. A handful of people were browsing each aisle for merchandise, and a few were in the checkout line. It was eerie how similar this world was to mine, I thought. I wondered if they were somehow connected in some way.

I wandered around the market for awhile before I stumbled upon the men's clothing section. I saw a few coats for 100 'crowns' as Raymond called them. I kept looking; seeing as I only had 200 to spend, I didn't want to waste half of it on a coat. The least expensive one was a bulky green coat with cotton lining on the inside for warmth. The end of the coat reached down to knee length. It was 70 crown. I picked it up and threw it in my cart. There was also a body-length blanket for a few crown, figuring since it was pretty cheap I decided to buy it.

Making my way over to the food section, my eyes scanned the shelves for non-perishable foods. Preferably jerky, which I found on the top shelf within a few seconds. It said tauros jerky, yet oddly enough it looked exactly like beef. I read the ingredients, but I couldn't recognize any spices other than salt. I picked it up and read the price, it said 10 crowns. I threw it in the cart along with a box of crackers and some dried fruit, totaling 20 crowns. I found some 'pignite' rinds, with natural spiciness added by cheri berries. Oh well, I thought, it couldn't hurt to try, and for a measly 2 crowns. That's a deal no matter where you're from.

I sauntered over to the Outdoor Activities section. That's when my inner five-year-old came out. All manner of weapons were there, knives, air pistols, the type of toys that got a boy giddy. I felt excited just looking at them. But alas, I had to focus on the task at hand. I walked over to the knives and picked up a silver colored folding pocket knife with a lockback mechanism for 10 crowns. I figured it would be worth it, at least I wouldn't have to skin a fish with my hands. I also found a longer knife, with a 9 inch blade and a wooden handle, for 20 crowns. I chose to keep it, if only for combat purposes. While looking in the same aisle, I found a black backpack that was remarkably cheap. I figured that I should buy it so I'd have somewhere to put all the items I purchased in the store.

As expected, after browsing the store for a bit longer, I found a trainer section. It had some expensive training equipment I realistically wouldn't need. There were pokeballs for a 20 crowns _each_. I would definitely need those, but I couldn't afford an effective amount. I bought 2, making my grand total 172. I only had thirty crowns left. I still wanted some money left over, so I picked up 2 waterproof fire starter's that could presumably be used an unlimited amount while still maintaining the same spark.

By the time I got to the line at the checkout, the young man at the counter rung me up and I was on my way out shortly after. It turns out that 'crowns' weren't much different than dollars in my world. They didn't have coins, though; they just had .50 crown and .25 crown and so on. Also, different bills had different colors and different pokemon on them. The five crown had an arcanine, the ten had a dragonite, the 20 had a moltres, 50 had articuno, and 100 had zapdos.

The city had gotten a bit more movement in its streets. The more I thought about it, the more it started to remind me of Jersey. Most of the buildings were apartment complex's lacking front or backyards. There weren't even many plants, all the decor was either stone statues or large shiny rocks. The only color the city truly had was the grand blue sky above it. The only thing that was unlike Jersey was how uncrowded the city was.

Seeing an older looking woman leaned up against a building, I took it upon myself to ask someone for the time. I didn't know the time it was when I passed out and didn't attempt to find out. I also wanted to know if they used the same time system as we usually did in America.

"Excuse me, ma'am, do you know what time it is?" I asked. The old woman was draped a raggedy faded violet silk cloak covered with specks of dirt. Her pitch-black hair was concealed via a purple head wrap. Her skin was a chocolate color, with noticeable wrinkles under her eyes. She had a necklace with small wooden spheres making up the body of it, hanging around her neck.

"Indee-id I do young man, but I fear I'm in a desperate need for some type of nourishment. I see you have quite an ample bulk of grocery bags. I'd be in great gratitude if chew'd spare un old woman a share," I recognized that accent, it sounded suspiciously close to the Caribbean. I lived in a neighborhood with plenty of islanders. I even grew up with a Caribbean friend named Lana who had that exact same accent. The way she spoke was so elegant and refined, she spoke even better than most natural English-speakers. I loved the rolling of the r's especially, it's like a treat to my ears.

"Uhh, I have a couple bags of pignite rinds?" I lamely offered.

She looked at me with disgust, but soon collected herself and turned down my offer, saying. "No, It'tis against my religeeun, child. Ah do not eat da'pokeemun from de' udder regions, I will not let deez foreigners invade my body. It happened to my peepool', it twill nut happen to me."

"What do you mean, 'your people'?" I asked.

"My peepool', the original inhabitants of Kanto. They do not teach you dis' informatiun in the invader's soldier training?" The woman grinned.

"I'm not from here, I don't know much of the history," I nervously laughed, she looked at me doubtfully, but brushed it off and continued talking.

"Young mon', I can trade you some'ting more valuable than the time. I can geeve' you dee' secrets of your energy," she said ominously, her eyes seemingly looking at something I couldn't see.

"Uh, I guess it wouldn't hurt...and you'd give me a palm-reading or something?" I quipped. She looked as serious as ever despite my taking her as a joke.

"I see a darkness in yur captor device. Dis' creature is causing great sit-ress to you. You separated her from her pack and know she holds a great disdain towards you." It's like she knew my past despite never meeting me. I knew the pokemon world would be spectacular, but this was supernatural.

"How do you know all this? Is this a trick?"

"No, the angry pokemon left her dark mark on de' wounds chi inflicted jew' wit'," she said as if it was obvious. Her finger pointed to my shoulder and shin; which still ached from the attack.

"Are you some type of dark type expert or something?" I asked.

"My peepool have dee naturoll affinity for da' dark type pokeemon. Our peers are dee flowers and da' grass, but we remain the shade under duh tree," she spoke in a poet tone.

"Can you somehow make her obey me?" I request, she looked at me with disgust, but still answered me anyway.

"I will nut make a leafing creature wit' free weel obey another, tis is nut why dey' wor created." The strange woman denied.

"Well damn," I snapped with a frown on my face. I would think someone so knowledgeable about a certain pokemon would be able to help me, but things can never turn out favor, can they?

"I cun steel offer you advice wit convincing it to partner wit you through its own resolution," she suggested.

"Alright, lay it on me."

"She will respond best with negateeve reinforcement, so dis eez what I recommend for yur training. She is a pack pokeemun, she requires meeny pokeemun around her tuh make her feel protecteed. I suggest eider catching anudder or having a few friends to probide security por her," she proposed.

Great, half of that information I already knew and the other half was impossible for me to do. First off, why would I catch another pokemon when I can't even control the one I already have? And what friends could travel with me across the region? Mog and Raymond? Because they were the only ones I knew by name in Kanto.

"Jesus, well thanks for the advice. Here're some crown and some trail mix. Now do you know the time at all?" I sighed. The old woman snatched the goods from my hand and looked up at me with a smile.

"Do jew' see uh watch un my wrist, child?" She flashed her wrist, I frowned and walked off without waving bye. I got conned out of money and trail mix, and I still didn't even find out what the damn time was.

 _XxXxXxXx_

I was walking down the path on the outskirts of Pewter City, grassier and less modernized, but it still had the characteristic rocky habitat that Pewter has. Small pebbles decorated the ground like gravel, except it was there naturally. Maybe there was once a lake or something there, but it dried up and left all the eroded rocks in its wake long ago. "Hey, kid," a girl skipped up from behind me. A purple snake with a piss yellow ring around its throat was curled up around her neck. I had no idea how she could possibly let that thing anywhere near her face. It turned its head toward me and I shrank down.

"Hey, kid," a girl skipped up from behind me. A purple snake with a piss yellow ring around its throat was curled up around her neck. I had no idea how she could possibly let that thing anywhere near her face. It turned its head toward me and I shrank down.

"Hey," I said dryly. I had sort of an attitude that day. Maybe because of the fact that I wasted my time talking to that random woman, then when I attempted to employ her tactics for training the mightyena I came up with less than perfect results. By that I mean she tried to tear my hand off when I used 'negateeve reinforcement' as she put it.

I followed the map to the eastern most exit of the town. I figured if I were to go out on a trainer populated route whilst training the mightyena, she wouldn't be able to kill me because someone would no doubt be there to stop her. I hoped it wouldn't need to come to that.

The route was covered in gravel and dangerous slopes. I saw a few hikers strolling along, but I chose not to battle them in the case they wanted to scrap. I couldn't quite yet compete against other trainers, I needed to prioritize getting the mightyena to obey me first.

I took my chances and released her. She burst out of the ball and immediately started snarling at me. "Hey!" I yelled at her, she stopped for a moment and listened to me. "Obey me or I'll...I'll cut you with this!" I pulled out my knife, the 9 inch one, and waved it around at her.

"If you even think about attacking me I won't hesitate to do it!" I said as I trembled in fear. Her eyes were narrowed, she wasn't scared, but she still listened to my words carefully. I wondered if she could understand me? I wouldn't be surprised considering all the other oddities I'd seen in that world.

The hyena pokemon made an odd laughing sound. Although she was cracking up, her face still portrayed harsh aggressiveness. She made a move to walk towards me, but I kicked her as she got close. She jumped back, and pinned her ears to her head, her laugh turning into a growl.

I pulled some jerky from my backpack and threw it at her. She caught it in her mouth, devouring it with vigor.

"If you want more of that then you'll LISTEN to me, or I'll starve you, you hear me, b-bitch!?" I shouted unsurely. The mightyena stayed silent in response. Her eyes wandering to my backpack.

"I'm gonna hand this to you…," I announced as I slowly stepped near her. Her fur became on edge, and she flashed her fangs at me. I swung my blade, she bounced back, dodging it. "Don't bite me, or I won't miss next time!" I warned.

I was about 3 feet away from her, and I set the jerky down in front of the hyena. Her ears perked up and she jumped for it, but I held out the blade, causing her to stop in her tracks.

"Slow...slow…," I repeated as she inched forwards. We were so close that I could hear her breathing. A drop of drool splashed on the gravel below us, her eyes met mine, and she took my distraction as an opportunity to snap the meaty treat away.

They said negative reinforcement would work, but I couldn't find it in myself to continually attack an animal without feeling like a terrible person. After all, it wasn't her fault that we met. She was just hungry, and I was an easy meal.

I attempted to touch her black coat, but she nipped me in the hand when I made contact. I yelped and hit her in the nose. She flinched from the pain, her eyes locked onto me and she lunged. I punch her in the stomach mid-jump. The dark hyena landed on the ground and yelled at the top of her lungs.

"I'm not gonna hurt you if you don't hurt me," I said, I yet again drew a piece of jerky from my backpack. I placed it on the ground and signalled for her to pick it up. She begrudgingly stalked over. Her eyes fixated on the jerky. When she got within arms reach, I touched her fur successfully for the first time. My hand was gently placed on her back, I rubbed it and felt the oil and fat from her habit of eating raw meat. I retracted my hand back and got a whiff of rotten meat. My palm had a black tint to it now.

"I think you need a name," I declared. She sat down and peered at me.

"Um...I know that they used to refer to hyena's as...," I recalled

"Zevoa! How does that name sound?" I asked, not realizing that she probably couldn't understand a word. In the Hebrew bible, they referred to hyena's as 'Zevoa.' I was raised Jewish, and even though I abandoned most of their ideals, I still retained a bounty of knowledge of their holy book.

There was a gym in Pewter, and I wanted to challenge it eventually. Mightyena is a decent pokemon as far as physical attack. If she attacked with the same savagery against other pokemon as she did me, she should be able to take it with little effort. After all, she was a second stage pokemon fighting the first gym leader, those chances seemed heavily tipped in my favor.

It would've been a good idea to start training her ability in combat, and somehow get her bite strength to improve significantly. I had wanted her to be able to rip off someone's arm using only her jaws. Her typing also granted her an immunity to the very powerful psychic type pokemon, which was impressive.

 _XxXxXxXx_

My progress with Zevoa was abysmal, she rarely even responded to her name. The only thing she replied to was jerky and my knife. I screamed commands at her, and she just growled back at me. At least she didn't try to run off. She did stray a few times, but all it took was some jerky to get her back.

There was a thick stick lying on the ground, I wrapped my fingers around it and decided to play a little game with my pokemon.

"Come here, Zevoa, wanna play?" I waved the stick in the air, she involuntarily flinched and scurried away. "No, no, come on," I motioned for her to move forward, Lana took the signal as me wanting to give her another piece of Jerky, and she advanced in my direction.

I made growling sounds with my mouth and got down on my knees. I swung the stick and she instinctively caught it in her jaw. The mightyena attempted to yank the stick away, but I still tried to pull it away.

"Bite it, bite it, there you go Zevoa!" I tried to associate the word 'bite' with actual biting, so that when I ordered for her to bite stuff, she'd actually do it. I kept antagonizing her by smacking her on the side of the head. She became hyper-aggressive, her teeth cracked open the dead branch and buried her fangs in it. Her voice turned deep and ferocious, Zevoa's eyes became deeper red than usual.

She pulled the stick away and shook it until it broke in half. The female mightyena's voice became intense and angry.

"Tssch, stop that, Zevoa," I pointed at her. Her red eyes faded to their usual color. I didn't even have to wave around the knife for her to know what 'stop' meant. The whole word association thing really worked.

 _XxXxXxXx_

It was sunset, and I made little progress with the whole word association thing. She knew the command for 'come here' and 'stop', everything else was lamentable. I ate a bunch of those pignite rinds and they were hot as fire. I gave the whole bag to Zevoa and she seemed to love them. I couldn't ponder it. The jerky tasted fine, it was a lot tougher than regular jerky but was still pretty tasty.

Using the rest of my cash, I bought some food from a street vendor within the city. This vendor sold little bread pockets filled with meat and vegetables. It tasted delicious, I bought three more for Zevoa, she was a big girl after all.

I strolled through the rest of the town with Zevoa in her pokeball. I didn't know how she would react around other people, so I didn't want to test her limits. I was making good progress, and soon or later I would be confident enough in her to release her within city limits.

As the sky was getting darker, I made my way to the pokemon center. I didn't feel like yet again sleeping outdoors freezing to the ground; even if I was better equipped for it than before.

The center was empty, I took a seat on one of the red chairs. I pulled out my new blanket and soon fell asleep on the red chair. It was bad on my back, but better than the ground. As I was dozing off someone tapped me on the shoulder, whispering _hey_ into my ear.

I finally woke up and looked at the person interrupting my slumber. She was a young woman in a red Barrett smiled at me and spoke. "There are rooms in the center, they're only ten crown a night," she informed. I growled to myself. Great, I looked like an idiot in front of someone and I was too broke to fix it.

"Thanks, but I don't have any money to buy a room," I said to the girl.

"Well, I'll let you sleep in my room then," well that surprised me, a young girl couldn't have just been inviting a random guy into her room for the hospitality points.

"I don't think so," I turned away from her and tucked my head into my blanket.

"No it's fine, you'll pay me back triple in the morning when I destroy you in a battle," she laughed. Now that I took offense to, how did she know she'd beat me in a battle? I had a fully grown semi-trained mightyena on my squad, what the hell did she have?

"Is this some type of scam you're running? Pay for somebody's room then rob them the next morning? How do you know I won't have one of my pokemon maul you in the middle of the night?" I threatened. She just giggled at me.

"Don't worry, I'll make sure you do nothing of the sort. Look at it this way; you get a free night in the pokemon center, and when you wake up you can battle one of the most skilled trainers in the city," she bragged. I mean, it was a good point that I would get a free night and wake up in the morning being able to demolish a trainer for the first time in the morning.

I got up and folded my blanket, all the while the girl was staring intently at me. "So...yes?" She asked. I sighed and nodded, after all, I had a combat knife and a large hyena on my person ready to go at any time, I felt pretty safe.

She skipped along up the flight of stairs in the pokemon center. I tried my hardest to run behind her, but I struggled to catch up with the energetic woman. The little woman came up to her door and popped it open.

She flipped the light switch and stepped into the door. Her room looked exactly like the one I woke up in. The only difference being she had a huge orange dog with black stripes draped across its back on the bed. It's ears perked up as she entered, it let loose a thundering bark as I walked in. But upon its trainer waving it off, it calmed down.

"Do I have to look forward to that monster when we battle tomorrow?"

"Yup."

"What's his name?" I asked.

"That's Bailey, as you can tell he's a mid-staged growlithe. He'll be an arcanine in about a year, I can't wait."

"Mid-staged growlithe? What do you mean." I said as I got settled on the floor. I undid my blanket and made sure to set my knife right under it, so I could grab it quickly just in case.

"Yeah, he's in the middle of his evolution. Pokemon don't just evolve in the blink of an eye with a flash of light, smart guy." Not from what I've seen of it, doll, not from what I've seen.

"So how long did it take to get that far?" I asked.

"Four years, but I've only had him for a year, and I've been training for 7 months."

"Daaamn, how about a regular pokemon like uhh, poochyena?" If I caught another pokemon that was in its first evolutionary stage, I'd have a hell of a time getting it to evolve.

"Last time I checked, eighteen months," so my mightyena was almost two-years-old, I thought.

"Did anyone ever teach you this while you were growing up?"

"I just didn't pay attention," I lied. She nodded in understanding.

"What is your name?" I asked her, "I'm Floyd North."

"Terry Palmer, I hail from Viridian City, that's where I got my first badge." A badge in Viridian? The only way to get there is the forest. That would be hell and a half when I needed the badge there.

"Let me see your trainer card to prove it," I stuck my hand out, she snorted and dug it out of her little red purse. I held it to the light inspecting it, "Hm, seems legit." Now I knew her full name, meaning I could report her if she did anything deceitful.

"Not easily trusting, are you?"

"Give me yours, to prove it's your real name," I did exactly that. She looked it over and nodded her head. "Seems legit."

"This here says you're badgeless. Is that right?" She observed. We traded our cards back to each other and continued our conversation.

"Yup but the gym probably won't be a problem for me. I've got a second stage pokemon already," I bragged.

Terry looked at me like I was insane. "The gym leader is no joke from my experience. I already lost to her twice," her? I thought Brock was the leader of Pewter City's gym.

"Wait, wait, her? What happened to Brock?"

"Where are you from again?" Terry cocked her head to the side.

"I'm from Lavender," I answered.

It seemed like her jaw dropped to the floor at that comment, but she collected herself and said, "Brock retired fifteen years ago. You must be _really_ out of the loop, Floyd."

"I, uh, that's not what I meant."

"Then what did you mean?" The barrett wearing girl laughed.

"I meant I thought Brock was a umm…better leader. Yeah, that's what I meant," I said dumbly. Terry smiled.

"Well, you're in the minority. Clarin is probably one of the strongest leaders in Kanto. Brock was a bum in comparison," she snorted.

"What else do you know about her? What pokemon does she use?"

"You'll have to find out yourself. Her pokemon are rock type, that's all I can say," she snickered.

"How many does she use then?" I asked.

"Usually three, most of them do. If you have more than three, she'll use that amount. As you go further in the league, like ten badges and above, they'll just use six."

"Ten badges? Do you know all of their types?" I questioned.

"Yeah, they're all of the types. eighteen-gym leaders," she informed me. That was more than twice the amount. It took her 7 months to get one badge, how long could it possibly take to get eighteen?

"How long do you think it'd take to get all of them?" I hoped she wouldn't say a ridiculous figure like five years.

"About three years. After the first three or four, you should have a full party and your team should basically be under your full control. Once they are under your control, all you'll really need to do to get the rest is to train to get stronger, not for obedience." That wasn't too bad.

"That sounds simple enough."

"Slow your roll, you haven't even gotten a badge. I don't really know exactly how hard it'll be either," she turned off the lamp and covered up with her blanket. "Try anything and Bailey will kill you," she said bluntly. I took the tip and got comfortable. I could feel her growlithe staring into my back. My knife was lock tight in my hand. It took a while for me to fall asleep, but eventually I drifted off.

When I finally fell asleep, I couldn't help but hold on tightly to my mightyena's pokeball. I was depending on her heavily for that battle, actually, I was solely depending


	5. Chapter 6

_You're doing pretty well, Floyd. Let me give you a little hand._

 _XxXxXxX_

"Rise and shine, bitch!" I shot up, knife in one hand and a pokeball in the other. I immediately regretted the decision because the light stung my eyes like a needle.

"It's time for our battle," I groggily rubbed my eyes. My knife was set down by my side.

"What time is it?" I asked.

"Does it look like I have a watch on my wrist?" Oh my god, not again.

Terry got up and walked over to the door, her growlithe was nowhere in site. I guessed that it had been returned some time before I woke up. I got to my feet and stumbled over to the bathroom. "There is a toothbrush and some toothpaste in there. The center maid gave them to us." The girl informed. Before I closed the door, I doubled back and got my backpack and brought it in the bathroom with me. I didn't want any of my belongings let out of my sight, even if I sort of was starting to like Terry.

There was a toothbrush by the bathroom sink. I brushed my teeth, washed my face and got in the shower directly afterward. While I was in there I collected my thoughts about what awaited me outside.

On one hand, Zevoa was a grown mightyena who if I'd have to guess was probably on par with that growlithe in terms of pure physical strength. On the other hand, she wasn't completely under my control and might lash out at me or someone else if she were to be let out in unfamiliar territory.

But she was also slowly starting to get used to me. I wouldn't get anywhere with her training if I decided to never let her out to battle. She was a pokemon after all, she was smarter and stronger than any regular animal, and it showed whilst I was training her.

I would have to use every single thing I knew about pokemon to my advantage in this battle. My opponent was already much more experienced than myself, and she was also likely stronger too.

It was definite that if Zevoa were to get ahold of one of the growlithes vital's it wouldn't be able to fight her off for much longer. Growlithe and arcanine were strong pokemon, and if a mid-staged growlithe was stronger than a growlithe but slightly weaker than an arcanine, I would be in for a treat during our battle. Mightyena weren't all that strong in the first place, I knew for a fact.

Zevoa was born and raised in the wild. It'd be like if a domestic dog were to fight a wolf. The wolf had a harsher life style and is more accustomed to having to duke it out with other bigger stronger animals to survive. But the dog has been pampered its whole life and likely never even had to fight for its food before. Obviously one has a pretty good edge in the fight. But you could also use that same reasoning with a Great Dane vs a wolf. Even though you can apply the same logic as before with the wolf, the Great Dane has a huge size and weight advantage that you definitely can't overlook. I felt like this match was gonna be an exact copy of Great Dane vs wolf.

Then there was my dream. I remembered having an odd dream that night, but I couldn't at all remember what it was about. Was it Mog speaking to me in my slumber? My mind ached at the thought of not being able to recall the events of the dream.

I finished up with my shower and got dressed. I looked at myself in the mirror. My brunette hair was a bit long, and much more messy than normal. My tanned skin was scratched up and rather rougher looking than usual, but other than that I looked exactly how I did before I left my world. My body had lost some weight though and my ribs were showing a little bit more. I swore to myself I'd get more food when I was done with my battle, if only so I wouldn't look so famished.

 _XxXxXxX_

Terry led me to the eastern exit of Pewter. I grasped my pokeball in my hand, and I saw that she was doing the same. I was eager as ever. "We'll be doing a casual match, you can use all of the pokemon on hand. I'll be using my two." Only two? That wouldn't be too difficult.

"Okay, I'll be just using my one," one versus two. The odds leant heavily in her favor, but I still had faith in Zevoa.

"Alright then, let's go Betsy!" She threw a pokeball at the ground. It bursted open and a shape molded out of the light. It was a pink otter that had a long tail with a white tip on the end. It's face was blank and expressionless. I wondered what it was.

Terry tapped her foot on the ground in wait. I registered what she meant and quickly threw Zevoa's ball on the gravel. It exploded and the ball flew back into my hand.

Zevoa didn't even look back at me, she immediately rushed after the otter pokemon and grabbed it's tail. "Quick! Shoot it in the face, Betsy!" The pokemon breathed in deep and puffed a breath of water into Zevoa's face.

"Bite harder!" She savagely shook the pink otter back and forth, but the pokemon's face remained expressionless as it was slung about like a ragdoll.

"Use confusion!" A pink water pokemon with psychic attacks. It had to be a slowpoke! We had an advantage against those things.

"Don't you know anything? Mightyena is a dark ty-," The slowpoke levitated a few dozen peebles off of the ground and shot them into Zevoa's ribs. She squealed and retreated back to my side of the field. She bared her fangs and growled gutturally. The slowpoke blasted a stream of water at Zevoa, whom easily avoided it.

"Bite it!" Zevoa didn't think twice before darting at the opponent. She pounced on the creature and dug her fangs into its spine. The otter pokemon screeched and flailed around feebly.

"Focus, blast it with water again!" I could tell the otter was dizzy from being shook like a dog toy, despite being thrown about. She gathered herself and hosed my pokemon again. Her face being soaked just made Zevoa more vexed as she redirected her bite back towards its tail. The mightyena tore off the appendage, causing the slowpoke to wail in pain.

She just ripped off Terry's pokemon's tail and wasn't even fazed. She was so desensitized by violence that whenever it took place she didn't even bat an eye.

"Come back!" Terry irately yelled. She gritted her teeth and tossed her next pokeball at the gravel. "Bailey, burn it." The banette wearing girl said very calm-like. The growlithe took the note and shot a jet of flames at Zevoa. The move was too quick to avoid, and she took it dead on.

"Bite it!" The mightyena was rushed by the growlithe and tackled to the ground. Zevoa implanted her fangs into the growlithes neck in response, but couldn't rip past the vast amount of mane on his scruff.

It was very violent, the two pokemon were tearing flesh from each others bodies. A mass of black and orange fur was flying around them, their barks and growls were echoing across the land.

"Fire fang it!" The growlithes canines became coated in flames, she bit down on Zevoa's neck, causing Zevoa to cry in pain. They momentarily broke up, each one staring the other down. Zevoa howled into the sky. Her eyes became red and veins started becoming far more pronounced on her arms.

She pounced on the arcanine and buried her incisors in the growlithes throat. This time around she was able to get past it's fur and to its jugular. Bailey's body became coated in heat, causing Zevoa to hop away to protect herself from further damage.

"Keep doing that, Bailey! Don't let her get too close!" The fire pokemon's trainer commanded. The pokemon did exactly that.

"Stop!" I yelled to Zevoa before she got near. I could see that technique was exerting the growlithe. If it kept doing that, it would soon pass out or be too tired to fight effectively.

"Blast it! That damned thing is trying to outlast you!" Bailey's trainer ordered. The pokemon obeyed her order and blew fire at my mightyena, but just barely grazed Zevoa with the attack.

Zevoa turned around and kicked a cloud of dirt into the growlithes face. While the pokemon was dazed, it's heat shield was down. Zevoa took the opportunity to grab the growlithes leg and threw it off balance. The growlithe fell on its back and feebly attempted to fight off the sudden attack. Zevoa was on top of her opponent tearing into it's body like a savage.

Fire poured out of the growlithes mouth and shot at Zevoa's face, making her yelp and back off of her enemy.

"Do the sand thing again!" She ignored me and glowered at the growlithe. Her breathing was very heavy, as was her opponents.

"Get in close and tear it up!" Terry directed. The growlithe ignored it's trainer too.

The mightyena bared it's fangs and narrowed its eyes. She growled deeply and her eyes glowed a very bright red. The growlithe doubled back a few steps, and wined loudly. Zevoa laughed with her fangs bared and covered the distance between the two pokemon.

Scary face! She was trying to slow it down a few notches. It was genius of her, she was doing a better job at this than I was doing at coaching her.

"Bite it before it catches on!" Zevoa leapt at her opponent. The growlithe couldn't get away this time. Zevoa wasted no time and locked onto its throat, suffocating it until her opponent passed out. Terry returned her losing pokemon, and glared at the pokeball.

The barrett wearing girl sauntered over, sighing to herself. "Don't worry, my slowpoke's tail will grow back. I don't think Bailey's pride will though," she sighed.

"Oh, and I was worried you'd be salty over it," I laughed.

"Salty? What do you mean?"

"Oh nothing, it's a Lavender City thing," I fibbed.

"Huh. Well anyway, I owe you thirty crowns," she said under her breath. She opened up her wallet and revealed a thick stack of bills. She licked her finger and fished out three bills. She handed them to me.

"Thanks for being a good sport about it," I said as I put it away in my pocket.

"We should get together for a rematch sometime," she proposed.

"That sounds like a great idea," I agreed.

"I guess I need to train more first, I felt for sure that you'd be an easy win. Most everyone in this town has either one badge or no badge. But then I stumble upon a trainer with none who knocks me silly," she laughed. I didn't even have one. I didn't think I looked that strong. Zevoa wasn't even trained.

"Haha. I only started training four days ago. Zevoa barely ever responds to her own name," Terry looked at me disbelievingly, but I nodded my head in confirmation.

"Wow, four days? I've been at this for a year, and I've only got one badge and two pokemon. You're gonna go far, Floyd," The barrett wearing girl predicted.

"Thanks, but I doubt it," I dismissed. I had an odd feeling that somehow me winning my first battle was influenced by something. I brushed the thought away though; I really didn't want to think that my first battle wasn't even my own accomplishment.


	6. Chapter 7

Terry gave me her number and her farewells. She went off to train or scam some more people. She was very cryptic about her plans.

I released Zevoa and she went into attack mode. After seeing it was just me, she calmed down. I reached out to pet her head and she bit me in the hand. I cursed to myself; knowing I deserved it. I knew that she wasn't completely used to me, so I shouldn't have been so friendly with her.

I fished through my bag for those three bread pockets that I bought the day before. After finding them, I unwrapped them all and gave them to Zevoa. She devoured them all in a few minutes and laid down with a full belly. I silently laughed to myself. If she wasn't a bloodthirsty killing machine, she'd be adorable.

It was a tiring day thus far, but the battle went a lot better than expected. If I knew that Zevoa had so many different cards in her deck I would've made her play them from the start. Scary face, sand attack and howl. I barely had an idea on how to train her to use those moves at all.

I started thinking if I should've journeyed through the rest of the route to Mt. Moon. I could maybe catch another pokemon in there. Geodude, zubat, clefairy, paras were all possibilities. I raided my mind for all of the cave pokemon I knew of. Most of them were terrible, but there was a handful of jewels that I doubted I would find.

It was odd how Zevoa couldn't stand for me to pet her, but she trusted me enough to sleep next to me. I guessed she was warming up to me because I gave her food. I returned the mightyena to her pokeball and walked down the gravel back to the city for some lunch.

The vendor from the night before had packed up and left, and I felt a way about it. I really liked his bread pocket thing. A little lunch shop was open so I walked in. It was close to the route so I'd be able to get my sandwich and go.

The shop had black and white checkered linoleum floors. Its walls were brick, there were tables set up along it. The tables were just plain black with steel chairs next to it. A menu was up and behind the cashier, it was written in chalk all of the options for food. I chose what seemed like the cheapest and most familiar, and bought it.

I picked a fish sandwich on plain bread, seasoned with leppa. Cheese and various other vegetables made up the other ingredients. I remember leppa berries being sweet and sour flavored from the game. It was five crown, which was way too expensive for a sandwich if you asked me. The sandwich didn't taste too bad, it was sweet and sour as expected, and was very fresh.

After enjoying my food, I headed to the store. I needed some equipment before going to ; as it would be foolish to go in there with a knife and the clothes on my back and expect a positive outcome. A small convenient store was right around the corner. The walk to it was short, and I kept to myself throughout the entirety of it. I didn't feel like talking to any of those people, I just wanted to get where I was going and leave.

I entered the building and observed my surroundings. All of the shelves were stocked with candy and beverages. Like all of the other buildings in the city, this one was lined with brick walls. A clerk was sitting on a chair reading a newspaper behind the wooden counter. Upon my entering, he smiled and greeted me, I nodded and smiled. We both greeted each other without saying a word, just how I liked it.

Most of the store had miscellaneous things that I didn't want to waste my money on. There was a section for outdoor things. Pokeballs were there, they were cheaper, but they didn't have any other types than the standard red and white ones. I cursed at the previous store I went to. I paid 20 crowns each for pokeballs there, when at this store I only paid 10 crowns each. Half the price. I only bought two, though, but I made a note to come back there when I got more money.

Next thing on my mental list was flashlights and toilet paper. I bought three flashlights and batteries for all of them. My main torch was LED, I would be using that one the most whilst in the cave. The next one was a smaller, backup flashlight that I kept just in case I lost the main one. My third was a cheap throwaway to use in the direst of situations. Toilet paper was crucial. Being stranded in the wilds without it would've probably been the worst thing in the world. I bought a six-pack just to be safe.

I walked back to the front of the store. The clerk got up and sat his newspaper on the counter. He promptly started scanning my items, and I couldn't help but notice the articles headline. The title was 'A Boy Found Dead Inside . His Own Pokemon Is Thought to Be the Culprit.' That sent chills down my spine. I knew that it was a possibility that a pokemon could kill it's trainer, after all, it almost happened to me. But to hear that something like that happened, and it was inside of , my next destination on my quest; really made me shiver.

After leaving the city limits, I released Zevoa. She was rejuvenated and ready to go. I decided to get some training in.

"Sand, sand, sand!" I kicked up some dirt at her, she got angry and started growling at me. I kept going anyway, kicking sand into her face while yelling the order for it. She turned around and kicked sand back in my face. I coughed and started laughing.

I got to thinking of gym strategies. Rock pokemon usually had high defense and attack. Most normal moves wouldn't have a good effect on them, and even though they didn't resist dark-type pokemon, Zevoa didn't have a high enough attack power to make use of that.

Water pokemon were probably the easiest way to overcome this. But Terry lost to the same leader and she had a slowpoke, so I'm sure that the gym leader had a trick up her sleeve for handling water. Zevoa might've been able to best them through smarts. I might've been able to go in, scary face to slow them down. Howl while they were stunned. Then go full-power on there asses. Or sand attack so they couldn't attack me, and howl to get me stronger. Then make Zevoa tear into them.

Also, most rock pokemon were very slow. In fact, rock pokemon were some of the slowest in the game. It wouldn't be a level playing field like how it was when Terry and I battled. It would be one strong pokemon versus an ever stronger, more defensive pokemon that was slow as all hell.

While I was lost in my thoughts, a pachirisu ran past us but didn't get far. Zevoa crushed the little squirrel in her jaws. She killed it before it could even attack. She tore open it's torso and ate its organs first. When she was finished with that, she did something unexpected. She picked it up and brought it over and sat it in front of me.

"Thanks, girl…" I picked it up by its tail and stared it down. It's body was still twitching, despite its thorax and belly being soaked in blood from its innards being ripped from its body. I handed it back to her, but she insisted on giving it to me.

After turning the offering down a dozen times, she finally got the hint that I didn't want it. She ate the rest within ten seconds; bones and all.

 _XxXxXxXx_

After some hours of training; Zevoa was fully responding to her name. I could even say 'Zev', and she would come over. No matter how hard I trained her; I still had pieces of flesh missing from my hand from whenever I tried to touch her. I made little progress with the sand attack command. Whenever I said, 'sand', she would either look at me sideways, bite me, or kick sand in my face. If I said 'scary face' I wouldn't even get a reaction. Howl was easy though, she seemed to get it pretty quickly.

We got into a scuffle with a wild zigzagoon. It was minding it's own business, and Zevoa didn't like that. She decided to pick a fight with it.

The raccoon pokemon was really fast but was very weak. Zevoa could easily kill it in one bite, but the problem was being able to even bite it in the first place. I decided to help her out with it. As she chased the little pokemon I cornered it, and she delivered the killing blow. It was funny because she ate literally the entire pokemon, then she would have a saggy belly right afterwards. Her shit was gigantic.

Whenever she would fight something she would obviously put the fear of god into it. This especially applied to small pokemon. If something picked a fight with her, they would immediately regret their decision. So far, nothing had escaped her grasp in one-piece. Come to think of it, I was the only one of her victims that lived an attack from her.

After some hours of training, I hit the sack. Before drifting off I kept looking down at my map. It said I had fifteen miles to go before I reached the cave. Even though I really was curious to see what waited for me in the catacombs, It was getting a bit late, and I needed sleep. The flashlight brought up a new possibility of me being able to travel past nightfall. This meant I'd be able to safely trek through the cave without something jumping out at me. Something did.

 **Please review, follow and favorite if you enjoy my story. Thank you.**


	7. Chapter 8

After waking up from my sleep, I packed up my things and immediately hit the trail. The spot I chose was probably the most uncomfortable thing I'd ever slept on. The entire landscape was covered with rocks, but for some reason I expected it to be just mildly annoying to sleep on. I had an aching back and was extremely grumpy. This seemed to rub off on Zevoa. As she stalked along, she growled and barked at everything that moved. My mood certainly affected her. I guessed she sensed that I was irritable somehow; pokemon were odd.

To take my mind off of it, I took up carving. That big knife was _very_ sharp and had a slight curve to it. It was perfect for the job. My first little project to distract me with was a spoon. I already had the shaft ready, I just needed to do the actual spooning part then I'd be finished. I was a natural.

Another hobby I adopted other than carving and training, was push-ups. I could only do 15, but slowly I was rising in my numbers. I felt that if Zevoa wanted to kill me; I'd be able to at least defend myself someway. But if I had to fight the new and improved Zevoa, I'd likely die a gruesome death by mauling. I cringed at the thought.

Zevoa was probably one of the strongest pokemon on the route; not to toot my own horn. If a pokemon stepped to her, she could easily dispose of it quickly and precisely. I wanted my entire team to be that strong in the future.

I admittedly didn't have much of an idea of what my team was gonna be like. I knew I wanted a psychic, a flyer, and something to ride on because my legs were sore as hell. I didn't really think of the specifics. I sincerely wanted a dragonite, but if I could get nearly mauled to death by a mightyena I couldn't imagine what an irritable dragon could do. On top of that, poochyena takes almost two years to become mightyena. Dragonite evolves at level 55 in the games, which is _way_ higher than mightyena. If the level system was transferred into months, that would be 55 months. The entire notion of me waiting that long for a dragonite could go to hell.

When I was walking I tried to stay in my thoughts. It kept my mind from wandering to my aching legs or my morning breath, or my current absence in Jersey. It was just me, my mind, and Zevoa. I would whistle or talk to myself, or make a terrible attempt at singing. I had to get a book or something next time I was in the city, I promised myself.

My mind went to pretty dark places while I was walking. I thought about whether or not I'd go back to my world after I'd beaten the elite four; _if_ I beat the elite four. I almost died once, how would I know if I could even get two badges before kroaking? What if after I beat the elite four, Zevoa and whatever other pokemon I had would just disappear? I would have 6 or more lives on the line on the journey, that made me almost not want to leave in the first place.

"Zevoa, go kill it," I pointed to a little purple rat under a rock. Not only was I rubbing off on her, she was rubbing off on me. I'm not sure if this seemed odd, but I felt my brain was highlighting the negative emotions, like anger and sadness.

I really wanted to see her kill something, just because I felt like it would make me feel better. Not knowing it would just make it worse. She darted towards the rattata and didn't even need to bite it. She crushed its skull with her paw and walked off, not even paying the dead rattata attention.

The only reason she did it was because I said so, otherwise she would've just let it live its life. I acknowledged the thought process; but failed to actually think about how messed up it was. I threw her a piece of jerky as thanks anyway.

I put the finishing touches on my spoon, it was pretty good for my first time. My next project was a fork. There weren't many trees around, which made me a little annoyed. It made me want to see something dead, but there was nothing alive around, which made me want something to die even more.

I took my anger out on my body. I ran at top speed for about twenty seconds before I dropped to my knees in exhaustion. Zevoa chased after me and jumped on top of me after I fell. I laughed but quickly covered my face, not knowing her true intentions. I had heard her panting, and peeked from under my arms and saw her staring at me in the eye. The mightyena cocked her head to the side and I almost died from her adorableness.

Her behavior put me in a better mood. I still had 10 miles to go, so it would be better to spend the rest of the stroll with a good temper. I swore that the next pokemon I would catch would be rideable. Even though I thought horses were terrifyingly huge, I would trade my aching legs for one of those any day of the week.

I heard galloping in the distance. It reared closer and closer, I turned around and was met by a large buck covered in chestnut colored fur. It had giant antlers encased in red leaves. There was a man on top of it, he wore an orange leather jacket and an orange hat. His waist had a small pouch on it and six pokeballs strapped his belt.

The familiar man tipped his hat at me, "Sup, Floyd."

"Raymond! What're you doing here?" I greeted giddily. His sudden appearance made me lose my attitude quick. The pokemon ranger climbed down from his perch and shook my hand.

"I was called in because there was a scuffle between two golem. My partners are handling it, though," Raymond explained.

"Oh, really? Aren't golems pretty rare?" I asked.

"Yeah, there is usually only one breeding pair per five-mile radius, but every now and then one will stumble across another's territory and trust me; it's not pretty." I could see that he had some experience with it.

"Huh, well it could be worse."

"Yeah, it could be a rabid linoone," he snorted. I laughed for a second, not being able to tell if he was serious or not. How would I have known how dangerous a rabid linoone could be?

"Well, I don't wanna keep you, bro," I sighed. I got a little down at the thought of him leaving. I was a pretty big fan of human contact, so seeing my only social communication for a whole day leave like that hurt me a little.

"You going to the caves, Floyd?"

"Yeah, I was thinking I could maybe get some training in while I was there," I notified him.

"How about I drop you off there, just climb on top of Ronan, he's got a second saddle," Raymond pointed to said seat. The large buck looked down on me and huffed, it tapped its large hoof on the gravel. Zevoa growled at the creature, but it simply ignored her. It had an air of power, it would probably demolish her in a battle. "You might want to return that mightyena, not sure if she'd fit on Ronan's back."

I did as he said, and recalled Zevoa. Raymond and I climbed on the bucks back, got settled and we shot forward like a bullet. Raymond gave the beast a signal to slow down, and it obeyed him without a second thought. The pokemon was very well-trained.

"Sorry about the rough start, he always starts off running for some reason," the rider apologized.

"It's okay, I'm used to bumpy rides," I said referring to my life in Jersey, traveling back and forth to numerous destinations on public transportation.

"So, anyway, how is your training going, Floyd?" Raymond struck up a conversation to interrupt the silence.

"Pretty decent I'd say. I named the mightyena Zevoa. She obeys me most of the time, but I'm still a ways away from where I'd like to be." I said honestly.

"Well good for you anyway. It took me weeks to get where I wanted to be with some of my pokemon," he reminisced.

"Then I guess it is good progress. Say, you're pretty knowledgeable about pokemon, aren't you?"

"I know a thing or two. I'm probably not an expert or anything like that," Raymond admitted. He tapped his boot against the sawsbucks belly, making it quicken its pace a bit.

"Do you know what type of pokemon are in ?" I asked him.

"Let's see, geodude, graveler, golem, zubat, golbat and crobat, for starters," I figured those would be in there. "Clefairy, rattata, nosepass, psyduck, golduck, paras, parasect and abra."

"There are a bunch more, but those are the ones that I've personally seen," he said looking back. "There are also some dark types, but I doubt you'd be interested in them. I mean, you've already got one," this was true, I wasn't interested in catching another one of those.

"Which of those would be the best to fight the gym leader with?" I inquired. None of them sounded particularly difficult to best in a battle, so that wouldn't be a problem. Golem and crobat scared me a little bit, though.

"Well, obviously you might think psyduck and parasect, but they are pretty rare. Psyduck usually stay in the water and paras stays in crevices and in cracks in the wall. Also, everyone uses them in their battles, including me, and it never turns out well. Nosepass is good, but very hard to train. I forgot to mention onyx, but you can't use those," he warned.

"Why not?"

"Because they're more than the length of a football field. Most of them are at least 50 tons. They can easily demolish cities, kid. Try your hand at those when you have at least 10 badges, even then you better be prepared for hell while training it," he laughed. The length of a football field? They were only twenty-something feet in the games. That was drastically different from what I knew. I didn't want him to elaborate on the topic anymore otherwise I might've looked suspicious. I would try to find out as much information about that world by myself through books, to avoid unwanted attention. If someone found out about my origins, who knew what they'd do.

"How about a baby onyx?" I asked him. I could only wonder what his face looked like while he was riding. I didn't know how dumb my questions must've been to him.

"This is usually considered common knowledge, but onyx typically carry their babies in their mouths. So you likely won't see one by itself," he notified me. Just my luck. And onyx was one of my favorite pokemon.

"I really don't know what to recommend from that cave. It was difficult for me to beat the gym leader and I had 3 badges by the time I got to her. You might as well just train hard as you possibly can with the mightyena then tackle the gym with it." That was what I was gonna do anyway.

"Where are you from, Raymond?" I changed the topic of conversation.

"Vermillion, born and raised," he said proudly.

"Vermillion is quite the distance away," I pointed-out under my breath.

"Yeah, but I've got a flyer to take me back and forth between Vermillion and Pewter. He's a fearow," Raymond bragged.

"What other pokemon do you have?" I asked. I'd imagined that he was pretty strong, after all, he had a fearow and a sawsbuck. Even though they weren't necessarily that good from what I'd seen of them, it most likely took years to evolve them. Considering how the levelling system worked in that world, that meant he had to have been a trainer for a few years at least.

"I've got Ronan here," he patted the sawsbuck on the side. "A houndoom named Nathan. A seismitoad I call Bog, an aggron named Clay. My fearow, AKA Carrion and my froslass, Brisk."

"That team sounds odd," I unintentionally said outloud. Raymond didn't seem too bothered and laughed. He must've gotten that a lot.

"Well, I built it specifically for being a ranger. I wanted to be one since I was a kid," he explained.

"What do you mean by that?"

"There is a requirement for all members of the ranger corps. You must have a team to tackle any task at hand, I have just that. Nathan is my nose and ears; he tracks my target. Ronan is my legs; he takes me to my target. Clay is my muscles; he beats anything to a pulp if it tries to get in the way of me and my target." Raymond briefly stopped to see if I was following.

"Carrion is my wings; she makes sure that if there is no ground to stand on; I'll still be able to get to my target. Bog is my flippers; he makes sure I won't drown when I hit the water. Brisk is my sanity, though you'll find that she isn't really all that sane herself," he laughed after he was done. Land, air and water transport; a tracker, a demolition machine and a consultant. That was an all around well-planned out team, if I did say so myself.

"So you've got wings and flippers?"

"I mean, if that's all you gathered from what I just said," he snapped his fingers as a signal to stop. His sawsbuck obeyed and came to a halt.

Raymond climbed off and pulled out a little silver stick with a red-light on the end. It blinked once and buzzed.

"This is where I'll leave you," Raymond sighed, he jumped on his pokemon just as I climbed off. "At this moment, you're about a mile away from the cave," he pointed to his left, I looked in the direction and could see the shape of a large mountain in the distance. It had to be about 10 miles wide and about a half of a mile long. A few smaller mountains surrounded the main one; making it look much bigger than it was.

"Alright then, so which way are you going?"

"Apparently, my gps buzzed, which means I'm going that way," he said, aiming his finger to the right. There was a huge collection of boulders that were likely much too difficult to trek by foot. He would most likely use his sawsbuck to travel them.

"You'd better get to it then, so you later," I said my goodbyes and nodded. He tipped his hat before Ronan bounded onto one of the boulders that had to be easily 12 feet from the ground. It hopped away, disappearing into the distance.

I released Zevoa, she immediately started sniffing around at her new surroundings. I walked off towards the caves, with a frown on my face all the while. I didn't get far before my vision faded to black. I fell to my knees, struggling to maintain consciousness. After a short fight, I slipped and fell into a deep sleep.

 _We need to talk, Floyd._

 **Cliffhanger!? I'm coming out with two chapters today. Seeing as my last one was only 1,800 words long, I felt like since my usual standard is around 2,200 words I kind of cheated you all. I had this one written for a whole 2 weeks, so I decided to release it earlier than expected. As always, please review, favorite and follow if you enjoyed.**


	8. Chapter 9

" _Let me fill you in on something."_

" _Wait, what?" I called out. My voice echoed in the endless void. One familiar figure stood in front of me. His black hoodie was replaced by a white one, and his cargo pants were a dull grey. But the same eerie-dark shadow resided inside of the hood._

" _What the hell is going on, Mog?" I asked while looking around and judging my surroundings._

" _You already know what's going on, you passed out and I'm messaging you through your dreams. Of course I could've_ _done this whilst you were awake, but I find it just as easy to do things like this."_

" _Right, right. So why are you messaging me while i'm unconsciousness?" I snapped impatiently. He seemed to ignore my attitude as he went into his explanation._

" _You're off to a great start, y'know that?" The Master of Games complimented me. "But let's be honest, you're doing too well," he said. What did he mean, 'too well'?_

" _How do you figure?" I inquired._

 _"Tell me; do you cheer for the underdog?"_

" _Yes, of course. It gets boring watching the same person win a game over and over again. I like to see a good fight."_

" _Well, that's how I feel about you. You're far too much of a protagonist. I want to see the main character go through hardships and struggles, but so far you've been destroying the competition," he sighed and crossed his arms._

" _This is my life now. To me, this is no longer a game-"_

" _It is to me, this is nothing but a good story, albeit with a few noticeable errors," he interrupted, startling me with how menacing his voice got._

" _But I'm going through real hardships here, I want to win," I challenged._

" _I like you; and I want to see you succeed at this. But you're boring; you're a boring character," Mog insulted. He started pacing about, his arms behind his back. I just stood there and stared._

" _So I'm going to help you become interesting."_

" _How would you do that?" I questioned._

" _Now I can't tell you that. If you knew, then it wouldn't help much on the whole 'boring main character' end. I'm basically giving you a hand and giving you a foot simultaneously."_

" _What do you mean, 'a hand and a foot'?" I asked._

" _I'm going to shoot you in the stomach, then drop a first aid kit right next to you, basically." That's what he meant, the hand was the help and the foot was the hindrance. So they basically cancelled each-other out._

 _"You just revealed your plan," I snorted_

" _That wasn't the plan, that was an example."_

" _Alright, so what else do we have to discuss?" I asked irritably, sick of his condescension, even if I had actually brought it on myself. He froze in his pacing, and stared at me intently._

" _That all depends; do you have anymore questions?"_

" _No." The void blinked black and white, then warped into an array of different colors that were inconceivably beautiful. That must have been what LSD felt like._

XxXxXxXx

My eyes fluttered open, the first thing that I noticed was that it was darker outside than before. I briefly got worried about Zevoa, seeing as I had let her out just before I passed out. However when I saw the red glow of her eyes; my panic subsided. She trotted up to me, I noted that there was a purple tail dangling from inside of her mouth.

I dug out my fire-starters and had them in one of my hands, ready to go. I scanned the area for usable firewood, seeing as it was freezing cold and dark as hell, I wanted to get a fire going to remedy both of those problems . After some minutes of searching, I found a broken branch laying next to a lonesome tree. I gathered it up along with a few thin twigs.

It didn't take very long for me to start a fire. Zevoa relaxed next to it, she viciously itched her side, attempted to ease her irritation likely caused by fleas or ticks.

I spaced out whilst watching her. What was he going to do to me? It could've been anything from tripping over a rock, or a boulder tripping over me. I shivered at the thought.

I made sure Zevoa was close at all times, just in case Mog decided to send something over to ambush me. I drew my large combat knife, ready for a fight. Zevoa sensed my anxiousness and became on edge herself.

I decided to get something to eat. That would take my mind off of Mog and his tricks. I hadn't had a bite in a little while and the only food that I could think of that was in the area was rattata and pachirisu.

It was a little fucked up that I thought of living things as nothing more than food.

With Zevoa loyally by my side, I began to venture far from my camp. The moon and stars were the only things illuminating my path other than my flashlight. I was grateful for the fact that there was no forest obstructing my view; meaning nothing could possibly be hiding from me. The only greenery were thin patches of grass and an occasional bush or tree. Everything else was gravel, boulders and pebbles.

For some reason, even with the relatively little amount of light brightening my surrounds, I could still see clearly. I just couldn't make out specific features. A small creature scampered in the darkness. It appeared to be some type of armadillo, except it was very large and had small cracks in its armor. It had large black eyes with a slight shine to them.

It froze and stared at us two. Zevoa looked at it curiously.

The armadillo was the first to break it's stillness and scurried away. But it was much too slow, and Zevoa caught up to it in a few strides. It kicked sand into the mightyena's face, causing her to backtrack a few steps and try to shake the sand out that was impeding on her vision. The creature took the opportunity to awkwardly run up to Zevoa and slash her across the chest. Zevoa growled and bit at the air, but the pokemon easily dodged it.

Zevoa sniffed at the air, attempting to detect the sandshrews location by scent. She deduced it was directly to the right of her and pounced in its direction.

Her judgement was correct. which in turn meant she was able to get on top of it. Her fangs became frosty, almost like icicles. She sunk the frozen fangs into the sandshrew's stomach; making it squeal bloody-murder. At first I feared it had died. But once she pulled her incisors out, the sandshrew was still twitching ever so slightly. Indicating that it was still alive.

It put up a good fight. Something about it made me want to capture it. It was a fighter at heart. It wouldn't go down easily. I needed something like that on my team.

I took the chance while it was in front of me. I pulled out a pokeball, and chucked it at the pokemon with all of my might. The sphere bounced off of the creatures forehead, and absorbed the pokemon up with a beam of red energy. It shook once, twice, three times. Then clicked. I had caught a sandshrew. I was so overcome with joy that I couldn't break my gaze from the pokeball.

Eventually I found my dinner. It was a rattata, Zevoa crushed its skull in one bite. The little rat put up much less of a fight than the sandshrew. I quickly separated it's purple hide from the meat then skewered it with a stick and roasted it on top of an open flame.

Skinning rattata wasn't difficult at all. Just a quick slit right above the rectum down to the feet, and I tore off the fur like a sweater.

Knowing how the body worked due to my experience in the medical field really helped in that aspect. All I really had to do was make an incision to the tissues connecting the skin to the muscle and viola, I had supper.

I discovered three new talents since I arrived in that world; carving, taming wild animals and peeling the epidermis from small mammals.

I tossed the sandshrew's pokeball at the gravel. The little armadillo appeared to still be unconscious, Zevoa sniffed at the creature in it's state. After learning it's scent, she tapped the creature with her paw, trying to make it move. It's eyes opened, and it must've been terrified, to be woken up by a 100+ pound hyena standing directly over it.

The sandshrew defensively curled up into a ball. Seeing this as some sort of game, Zevoa started pushing the armadillo ball with the tip of her nose, making it roll around on the rocks.

While Zevoa was occupied, I started to think about my brand-new pokemon. Sandslash was slow, but had a high attack and defense, and it was mediocre in every other catergory. It had very common weaknesses. Water, ice and grass. All three of those types normally hit on the special side, and a sandslash wouldn't be able to do much to soften a hit from one of those types.

Also, Zevoa displayed a move I was unaware that she had. Ice fang. That opened up a world of possibilities, I now could hit ground types for super effective damage. This seems pretty insignificant, but not when you consider that most of the common rock pokemon are part ground. The gym leader was a rock type specialist. I smirked at the thought of crushing the leader with the new technique.

It also would give me an edge against annoying grass type pokemon that I would no doubt encounter in the future.

The moves that she knew the commands for were bite and howl. Sand attack and scary face were still in the process of being taught. If I could get fire fang, thunder fang and poison fang then she would be a coverage machine.

Although she was pretty smart, but I wasn't naive enough to think that it would be easy to teach her those moves.

In the week that I had been training, the only thing that I ever thought about was Zevoa. I was bonding with her, and I wouldn't trade her for anything in the world. Except, well, maybe a few thousand crown so I could afford some real food. So _almost_ anything.

I just hated the effect she had on me. I used to be a happy person. I didn't take stuff as seriously as I did after she popped up into my life. Her presence immediately put me in a sour mood, despite me genuinely liking her. She desensitized me to violence. I had never been a queasy person, blood and gore were nothing to me. I attribute this to me growing up with video games most of my life. This of course enabled me to want to become a doctor. But now blood and gore were second nature to me.

For example, when I took down the rattata using Zevoa. If I was in the same scenario a month ago, I would've been far more hesitant to kill the rattata. I used to have a philosophy that every living thing, from an insect, to a snake, to an elephant, was deserving of a chance to live it's own life. Now whenever I killed something I didn't even bat an eye.

I was slowly but surely losing my mind to that damned beast.

There were upsides of being a wild man though. I was hardened by my surroundings. I ate very seldomly and learned to ignore my stomach rumblings. One rattata was enough food for me, and I had been eating usually about one meal a day with some small things on the side like jerky and dried fruit.

It was unhealthy, I knew that, but what was the other option? There was not a constant food source out in the field. Obtaining three to five meals a day was not a simple task. It took an hour to get one rattata. Imagine if I had to get 3 of those, every few hours, for five times a day? I would have to train, rest and travel whilst I was doing all of that, too, mind you.

I laid under the moonlight for a while, eventually returning the sandshrew but leaving Zevoa out. I trusted that she wouldn't have ran off in the middle of the night. If she wanted to go she would've done it already, seeing as how I couldn't stop her whether I was awake or asleep.

That day was pretty exciting, if I could so myself. To hell what Mog said, I wasn't a boring person. I was in a world full of pokemon, for godsakes. I had a pet hyena. I knew a god. The list basically stopped there. Well, I was a nurse too, but that wasn't necessarily an exciting thing.

At least I knew that for the next few days my life would be thrilling enough for that demon, and I was damned sure of that.

 **Hope you enjoyed, please favorite, follow and review if you want to see more from this story.**


	9. Chapter 10

No dreams that night, no nightmares, just sleep. I woke up during sunrise. It had to be around six or seven o'clock. The fire was nearly extinguished, I decided to leave it alone to take itself out. The sandshrew was in its pokeball and Zevoa was awake terrorizing the local pokemon. I whistled for her, she came skipping up to me looking innocent. I petted her head, received a routine bite on my fingers, and was on my way.

I had more than enough daylight to make it to . My mind had zoned out during the walk, so time just seemed to fly by. The ground slowly changed from a rocky earth to a grassy terrain. The grass was about up to my knees, and thick too. I had to watch myself and make sure I didn't step on anything, namely faeces or whatever produced it.

There was a long, straight stick sitting on the dirt. I picked it up as a makeshift staff I used to sort through the turf for any potential pokemon concealed within the foliage.

The cave entrance was considerably bigger than it was in the games. Rock slabs pointed out of the earth. The deeper into the cave I looked, the more I saw that very little vegetation was inside of it. The grass was sparse because there wasn't much sunlight that reached into the depths.

The moist habitat provided a perfect environment for mushrooms, however; many grew on the walls and floor of the cavern. A red-sign with a picture of a stick figure slipping down a steep cliff was in front of me. It read 'Beware of Fall.'

I looked around for some other way to get across the vertical slope, and saw a stable looking bridge going across the length of it. I withdrew Zevoa into her pokeball, and started crossing it.

Finally, I made it onto solid ground. I collapsed to my knees gasping; seeking to gain my breath. I was never any good with heights.

I creeped through the cave in complete and total darkness. I dug out my flashlight, the big one, and switched it on. A brilliant white light erupted from the torch, lighting up the vast majority of the cavern.

A putrid scent hit me in the face. It filled the air. I scrunched up my eyes and held my nose, but the smell was too powerful to escape. I released Zevoa, and she instantly recoiled and started scraping her nose with her paws. She whined and whined, I returned her back into her ball, so she didn't have to bear it any longer.

By myself, in the darkness, with a rancid odor coming from an unknown source following me around. The only thing providing luminescence in the cavern aside from my torch were these peculiar glowing mushrooms and moss decorating the floor, walls and ceiling.

A tiny beetle-like pokemon with large pincers and mushrooms on it's back scurried on the rock next to me. It stopped and snapped it's claws at me, I stomped the ground and scared it off. If all I'd have to fight were pokemon like that i'd have a pretty easy time in the cave, I thought.

Bug types were a problem. They were small, usually fast, and could hit Zevoa really hard. I knew she wouldn't appreciate any punishment from a powerful bug pokemon, so I needed to invest in something that could resist them. Fire was a fairly uncommon type, same with fairy. I couldn't use a steel type, because that would just be another fighting weakness. I was lucky that Zevoa was as strong as she was, otherwise I would've been in a predicament if I encountered one. Before I started thinking about all of that stuff, I had to figure out a way to get through the cavern first.

Of course, I still hadn't completely established why exactly I had entered the cave in the first place. For some reason I just wanted to go there. Since Zevoa was out of commission for at least until that smell subsided, I couldn't get done any real training with her.

But then again, I could've taken the time to train my newly-caught sandshrew. I left it in it's pokeball ever since the night that I caught it, and I barely ever thought about letting it out. I already had enough on my plate as it was.

However it wouldn't have been right for me to leave it in it's ball forever. After all, I was the one who decided instead of eating it I'd catch it. I made my decision; I would wait until we got past that horrendous scent, then I would start training both of my pokemon at once.

I drew my combat knife as I got deeper into the cave. If something decided to pop out at me, I'd be ready.

 _XxXxXxX_

To keep myself occupied for the next 30 or so minutes of walking, I started punching and kicking the air like a five-year old. For some reason I considered punching and kicking at nothing practice. I would've never done something like that if anyone was watching.

"Hiya!" I yelled, round-house kicking at the wall, making a loud noise on impact. I screamed and hugged my shin, cursing at myself. "Why did I have to do that?" I asked no one.

A broken pokeball laid on the ground in front of where I sat. I interrupted my weeping to examine the shattered capture sphere. I shined my bright light on the object. A dried crimson liquid stained the rim, it looked like it had been there awhile. Something had to have either smashed out of it, or something was after what was inside.

I looked around for a body, but none were to be found. I was in the middle of a cave, it was only logical that a few people may have gotten killed inside of it. But either a pokemon was going around killing things, or something escaped from a pokeball and proceeded to go around killing things.

Either way, both were just as bad for me. I shined my flashlight deeper into the cave, looking for the culprit. I remembered how I read a headline on that clerks' newspaper. A boy was found dead in the same cave. A pokemon killed him. That pokemon was probably still there.

I heard a sound behind me. I switched around, my heart racing, and thought myself to be silly when I saw it was just a droplet of water from the ceiling. I wiped the sweat from my forehead, and kept walking. My nerves were bad, the air even made me feel uneasy.

The smell was still there, but it was faint. I would wait a little while longer, then I would release Zevoa.

I flashed my light around the cave. I saw a figure, it was shaped like a human, but it wasn't moving. I gripped my knife, and drew closer. I focused my eyes, and realized it was a mere rock. I laughed at myself for being so paranoid.

 _XxXxXxX_

Every few minutes, something would scare me, and I would find out it was nothing. I had to convince myself that this stuff was probably commonplace in this world. I had nothing to worry about. If something really did happen, Zevoa would be able to take any pokemon that came our way, especially some untrained one, right?

A shadow darted in the darkness, the part that my flashlight didn't illuminate. I didn't even bother checking. At that point, I wasn't even scared of some made-up monster in the cave-system. I had other things to worry about.

Again, the same shadow darted in the corners. This time I turned my flashlight towards it. I saw it was nothing, and attempted to put my mind to rest with the knowledge of that.

My heart nearly jumped out of my chest when I felt a tap on my shoulder. I whipped around, knife in hand, to see a young man, about my age, standing behind me. His face looked absolutely terrified, his hair was black and his eyes were big and frightened looking. It took me a moment to realize why; I had the edge of my knife up against his throat.

I pulled the knife back reluctantly, and stared the boy in the face. He muttered some words that I could barely understand. "Speak up, dude," I said a lot harsher than I meant to. My hand was shaking, I was still scared and the adrenaline still pumped through my veins.

"I-I wanted to ask you f-for a battle," he stuttered out. I tilted my head at him.

"You couldn't just say that? Don't just touch someone in the middle of a dark cave, I could've killed you!" I nearly yelled. He cowered away, holding a pokeball up as his only line of defense. It was shiny looking, like he had just gotten it. He had to have been a brand new trainer. Zevoa's pokeball was dirty and had scratches all over it, and I had been training for only a little over a week.

"I didn't know…," he said to himself more than to me. I was talking a lot angrier than I wanted to, but I couldn't help it. I was just as terrified as he was.

"So I take it that shadow was you, huh?"

"No, I don't know what you're talking about," he said, looking around for said shadow. My eyes really must've been playing a trick on me.

"Oh, well nevermind." Just as I turned to walk away, he tapped my shoulder again. Before he could retract his hand, I grabbed it and squeezed. "I told you not to do that. I don't wanna have to hurt you to prove my point," I said coldly. His eyes widened at the threat.

"What did you want?" I asked impatiently.

"A battle, but if you don't wanna…"

"It's fine, we can go."

A smile spread across his face. "Okay!" He bounced a pokeball onto the hard rock floor. A brilliant white light brightened the cave for a moment. I could see all of the cave pokemon on the walls and floors pupils' dilate at the sight of it. They probably never witnessed such dazzling light before in their lives.

A short orange lizard manifested as the light faded. It had a fire burning at the tip of it's tail. It illuminated the pokemon, but wasn't bright enough to show anything else around it. It had hundreds of small scales across it's body. I was staring at perhaps one of the most famous pokemon in the pokemon universe, the iconic fire type, charmander. Upon seeing me, it growled harshly, baring it's fangs aggressively.

"Alright then, how many you got?" I asked him. He held up two fingers. Alright, two-on-two. Good enough odds.

I made the decision to release the sandshrew. It was untrained, and I wasn't sure if it would listen to me, but I could try. It even had an advantage against its opponent.

Upon being let out from its pokeball, the sandshrew rolled into a sphere. I facepalmed immediately.

The boy's face brightened at the sight, thinking he would have an advantage over such a timid pokemon. He yelled a command for his charmander to attack. The charmander loyally obeyed and darted towards the sandshrew. But he made the mistake of letting his guard down too easily.

The sandshrew rolled into the charmander's stomach with the force of a cannon. The charmander hissed something unintelligible and scratched at the sandshrew ball. My armadillo pokemon unravelled itself at the same time and was met with a scratch across the face. It got angry, and threw it's own bombardment of scratches at its opponent.

"Ember!" The charmander ran back about 15 feet away, and blew a jet of small fire pellets at the sandshrew. The sandshrew met the flames head-on and was knocked back. It screeched and squeezed it's eyes shut. The charmander closed the distance between them faster than I could follow and it's claws began to glow a bright silver. It slashed the armadillo in the face once more, and sent the pokemon reeling in pain.

"Roll up!" It surprisingly followed my direction and curled up into a ball once more. The charmander used a barrage of slashes against the sandshrew, but it couldn't break through the hard epidermis of the armadillo pokemon.

"Burn it again!" The charmander shot out a weak stream of fire which coated the sandshrew completely. My pokemon screeched and rolled around, trying to extinguish the flames. Eventually the ember died down. The charmander couldn't produce a flame that would even come close to rivalling a fire-user such as Bailey. It would take a lot of skill honing for it to become a powerful fire type. That being said, it's fire attacks were still painful to the sandshrew.

The fight was leaning in the other trainers favor. I didn't have full control over my own pokemon, if I did then that charmander would be buried by then. His charmander was barely even injured. If I returned the sandshrew, I was sure that Zevoa would trash the charmander along with whatever pokemon he had next. I went with that course of action.

"Come back!" I returned the sandshrew. I pulled out Zevoa's pokeball and bounced it off of the ground. She appeared in a flash of light and looked back at me for my orders. It took me for a loop. Instead of just bolting for her opponent, like she had so many other times, she was actually patient enough to follow my orders.

"Howl!" Zevoa pointed her snout up in the air, and released a loud cry. The charmander shrank down, intimidated by Zevoa's appearance.

"C'mon Blaze, scratch it!" The trainer ordered, the charmander reluctantly charged at Zevoa, it's claws shining a bright silver. It never landed it's attack however, as the mightyena grabbed it by it's arm with her fangs turning a shade of black. She bit down hard enough that I was sure I heard a crack, then the charmander hissed and screeched an ear piercing sound.

It's trainer returned his pokemon, then threw out another to replace it. A mouse pokemon with huge ears appeared. It was purple, and at first glance I figured it was a large rattata. But after careful observation, I realized it was a nidoran.

"Solomon, use double kick!" A fighting move, that would've been bad news if it landed on Zevoa. The poisonous mouse pokemon charged at Zevoa, and at the last second jumped up in the air and turned around. It unleashed a powerful donkey kick to Zevoa's chest, knocking the wind out of her.

Zevoa's legs were shaking under her own weight, but she was otherwise fine. Her ribs would definitely be bruised though. "Tear it apart!" A fierce growl erupted from her mouth, and she pounced on top of the nidoran, fangs frosting over into icicles. First her jaws latched around the nidorans body. Then she lifted it up and started shaking it like a ragdoll.

"Poison sting!" The nidorans back spines glowed faintly, and shot out all around it. Three needles stuck inside of Zevoa's muzzle, she yowled and dropped the nidoran. It shot some more projectile poison stings at Zevoa while she was distracted, sticking her more times than I could count.

Zevoa couldn't take much more. Her legs were buckling so much she could barely stand. The nidoran didn't look too good either. It had patches of fur missing and it's ear had a tear in it. Frost had collected on it's coat from Zevoa's ice fang attack too.

"Go for a bite!" I yelled. She darted over to the poisonous mouse and tried to latch onto it, but the nidoran narrowly dodged it.

"Horn attack!" The nidoran lodged it's horn into Zevoa. It didn't go more than about a centimeter deep. But it was still very painful from what I could tell by her yowling.

"Bite again, and don't miss!" I commanded her with worry in my voice. She seemed to understand, and she actually managed to get ahold of it. It's ear was now in her clutches, with a snap of her head, she tore it clean off. The mouse pokemon squealed, it had a bloody stump on it's head where it's ear used to be. The young trainer returned his badly beaten pokemon into it's ball.

The young trainer looked mortified. His mouth hung wide open, and he struggled to say any sort of word about the situation. I stepped over to him. The boy flinched and screamed. I looked down to my side and noticed Zevoa was next to me, growling fiercely. She was still in battle mode. I didn't even bother to return her. I was gonna need to pick out those poisonous thorns from her body later anyway.

"My prize money," I demanded calmly. The boy dug out a wallet with a pikachu on it. He pulled out his only bit of cash and reached his hand out, it was quivering faster than I thought possible. I resisted the urge to laugh. I decided to toy with him a bit. I made a frown, and growled deeply.

"What the hell are you waiting for? That nidoran is dieing!" I said angrily. I knew that the nidoran would likely be fine. Of course, it would likely never hear out of it's right ear again. However injury is expected when you pit two animals against each other in a deathmatch. It would've been foolish to believe that no injuries would occur.

His face turned a shade of pink, he was processing my words. "Go!" He turned tail and ran as fast as he could. Once he was out of sight, I cracked up laughing.

 _XxXxXxX_

"Hold still, Zev," I said as I picked the needles out of her side. She wined in pain, as I removed the last needle from her.

I managed to wrap up the wound that the nidoran had made with it's horn attack. I had to cut some cloth from my blanket to use as a makeshift bandage. I had blood running from my hand. I had sustained numerous bites while attempting to attend to the welfare of my pokemon. Fuck me, right?

I had the needles set out neatly on the ground. I knew that they were poisonous, because right after the battle Zevoa started vomiting, then she passed out for about an hour. After passing out, the curiosity in me wanted to examine her.

First, her fangs were ridiculously long and sharp. If I lightly pressed my finger up against the tip of them, it would draw blood. They also had to be at least 3 inches long, which was much longer than hyena fangs were in my world.

Also, her fur was had an unnatural ink on it. Like If you petted her, your hand would be dyed black. I knew this from when I had touched her before, but I didn't know the true extent of it. It was like she was coated in it, and I had no idea why. I deduced that maybe it was a result of her dark-typing. Or maybe it was to help her deter her opponents from biting her, given that it was probably gross tasting.

She was truly a fascinating creature. I wasn't a huge fan of her at first, but I had grown on her so much over the week and half. But she was slacking on her training, that much I could tell. It was partially my fault, though, admittedly.

It took far too much effort for my liking for her to beat that nidoran. It was half of her size, after all. I wanted her to be able to take on pokemon twice her size. If she could beat Bailey just a week prior, whom was a mid-staged growlithe, she should've wiped the floor with that nidoran.

I attributed it to the fact that she was sealed up in her ball for an entire day. Even when I let her loose I only did it so that she could go hunt or protect me. I needed some strong opponents for her to battle.

Her being in my presence also helped ease my nerves. I could be a lot less anxious, because I knew nothing could sneak up on me with her out. If it gave off a scent, or let off the slightest bit of sound, she'd know it.

Since she was out, it was only fair that I let the sandshrew out too. Zevoa was off killing and eating the paras that crawled at our feet. I prohibited her from getting too far out of my sight by calling her name when she stepped out of my boundaries. This left me some alone time with the sandshrew.

 _XxXxXxX_

After some examination, I found that the sandshrew was a male. He was gentle, something I wasn't used to in a pokemon. I still hadn't thought of a fitting name for it, but I settled on calling him 'Jerry' for the time being.

He enjoyed waddling around eating insects that creeped around. Every now and then, he'd stumble upon a particularly feisty paras or spinarak. This resulted in an unimpressive and quite boring battle between the two, which so far always resulted in his victory.

He was easy to train too. I taught him two things, roll up and roll out. I guessed that they were so simple to teach because they were almost second nature to him. Just like how it was fairly easy to teach Zevoa bite.

Jerry didn't even have a hint of a spike or anything of the sort on him. This indicated that he was still young and not close to evolving. He was pretty weak though, and his gentleness and passiveness made him into a poor battler. That is why I needed him to evolve, so that he could become an actual threat to anything that was bigger than a paras.

Zevoa's aggressiveness and menace attributed to how proficient she was at combat. The sandshrew's defense and patience was the main reason why it was still alive. He preferred to wait and watch in battle, I observed. His main weapon were his razor sharp claws. With some honing, I could make them cut through steel. But he was a long way from that.

The next few days inside of the cave were calm. Not unexciting or dull, just calm. I usually thought about my pokemon, or The Mog. I still had no guess as to what the shot to the foot could be. I usually thought it would just be one minor hinderance. I never figured it would be multiple bumps in the road over the course of my entire journey. Had I known I could've prepared for it earlier.

 **Hope you enjoyed this chapter. Please review, follow and favorite if you want to see more from this story. For new readers, I usually post on weekends.**


	10. Chapter 11

It had been 4 days since I entered the cave, the entire time of which I spent training vigorously. I had bonded with Zevoa tremendously, although Jerry still didn't quite trust me yet, but he was still making great progress.

I was growing more and more anxious by the day. This anxiety made me eventually start making my pokemon taking shifts during the night. Or what I thought was night. The cave was dark 24/7, so I couldn't tell whether it was am or pm.

Many nights I couldn't sleep, for fear of being ambushed during my slumber. One of the main reasons I wanted to do shifts was because I couldn't sleep, so watching over the camp every night kept me occupied in my restlessness.

"Ice fang!" I commanded whilst pointing at the opposing pokemon's head. Zevoa was battling a geodude. They looked like frogs, except instead of lean and powerful back legs it was the other way around. They were still almost indistinguishable from rocks, and I unknowingly tripped over a few.

She implanted her fangs into the rocky frog's head and froze it's brain. I had tried to eat one of them before, but they tasted like dirt, even without their epidermis attached. Something would definitely come along and eat it in my place.

It seemed like the density of pokemon heightened as I traversed deeper into the caverns. I encountered one small pokemon which I believed was a graveler. It was about up to my waist, and if I had to guess was about 200 pounds or so. It looked like a bipedal, four-armed turtle.

Jerry and Zevoa double-teamed the beast. It would've been able to take either of them on one-on-one, but with their combined efforts, it didn't stand a chance.

I managed to teach Jerry four commands in a week, he learned much quicker than Zevoa did. He could employ the moves scratch, poison sting, fury cutter and magnitude in battle. Although I didn't use magnitude very often, the power of the move fluctuated too often for me to be able to effectively utilize it in combat. Sometimes it would be little more than a slight tremor, other times it would be an earthquake that would shake the whole cave and cause rocks to fall from the ceiling. I didn't want to risk being crushed to death; so I stopped using it.

The sandshrew was noticeably bigger than he was 2 weeks ago when I had first caught him, he had grown at least a tenth of an inch. His tail was also a bit longer, his claws too, his body was also riddled with scars from previous battles.

Jerry improved mentally, whilst Zevoa improved physically. I was convinced that she could crush my skull in one bite if she wanted to. Her ice fang attack wasn't as strong as her regular bites, but it offered more diversity in her moveset. It also had a strategic edge to it. If it didn't knock out whatever she was fighting, it would sometimes freeze whatever area she bit it at.

On a bad note, that horrendous scent had came back. I took a piece of cotton and put it in my nose so I wouldn't smell it. I returned Zevoa and Jerry to save their olfactory senses from any more punishment. Right before she was absorbed into the orb, I noticed that Zevoa looked more intrigued by the scent than annoyed by it.

This scent was different than the last one. This one was reminiscent of a corpse. It took me a second to realize it, but once I did; I became even more anxious at the thought of it being _human_ remains lying somewhere in the cave.

The ground was turning into a more rocky-terrain the further in I walked. The earth looked like it had been shifted by miners or something. Bones were littered everywhere, and I couldn't see any pokemon on the walls or floors crawling around.

Even if whatever lived there wasn't strong enough to beat me in a battle; I didn't want to take that chance. I turned tail and ran away.

I sprinted far, until I was out of the obvious pokemon nest. I decided to take a different turn. Rather than going the exact way I came from, there was a second, bigger corridor to the right.

The corridor was larger around than the last one. I stuck to the wall just to make sure I wouldn't lose my way in the sizable passageway. I figured that maybe the other corridor would lead me around the large nest so that I could keep going deeper into the cave. I looked at my map a few days before, and saw that was 30 miles long and had multiple caverns leading to different exits. The main one lead to Cerulean City, but I didn't want to go there just yet. I wanted my badge from Pewter first.

I released Zevoa, then immediately regretted it after remembering that she would probably hate it. But to my puzzlement, she was actually content with the scent. She stuck her nose in the air and attempted to locate where the foul scent was coming from. At least, it was foul to me.

She sprinted down the passage, I chased after her, but my speed paled in comparison to hers. "Zevoa, get back here!" I yelled, digging out her pokeball. I aimed the ball at her, but it buzzed and screeched an ear-piercing sound. She was out of range.

Just as I started to lose my stamina, she slowed down to a halt and looked behind herself at me. Once I caught up to her, I sunk to my knees and attempted to catch my breath. I looked around for my flashlight, which I had dropped while trying to catch Zevoa. I found it and picked it up from the ground.

"Don't do that _*pant*_ again, _*pant*_ Zevoa," I wheezed with every breath. My lungs ached, that damned overgrown dog was gonna kill me one of these days.

I shined my flashlight in front of where she was standing. A body laid there, it was missing it's leg, like something had torn the appendage off. It looked like it had suffered from blunt-force trauma. It looked like it had been there for awhile. It was bloated to the point that it was leaking fluid from it's orifices, which was producing the pungent odor.

I shined the flashlight over it's face and observed it for a little while, and finally recognized it. He was the boy I had battled a 4 days prior. The boy with the charmander. I gasped and fell back from shock, scared and disturbed out of my mind.

I made a move to return Zevoa, when I saw something in the corner of my eye. It wasn't just one of the cave-dwelling creatures I'd seen before, this was something else. I turned to face it, but nothing was there; only rocks. I got up and ran away, Zevoa trotted not-too-far behind me.

I periodically looked behind me as I sprinted, but I saw nothing but darkness. The screech of bats filled my ears, as I was swarmed by zubat. I felt a few nips on my elbow, and started swatting the pests away. Zevoa barked and howled a few times; grabbing one of the creatures from the air and swallowing it whole. The cloud of flying-rodents faded, I heard a bellowing beast behind us roar angrily.

I ran for about another minute or so, before succumbing to fatigue when my adrenaline dissipated. I was far enough away from whatever was back there, it wasn't like I could run forever. I released Jerry and he stood guard as I fished around in my backpack for my knife. I ordered Zevoa to go find some food, seeing as I had ran out of my reserves a few days earlier.

Within 5 minutes, Zevoa returned with a blue mouse in her mouth. It was a marill. I tried to eat those things before, they stayed moist no matter how burnt they were. They tasted kind of like a fishy-rabbit. They were actually a lot better than the rattata that I had grown accustomed to.

I zoned out while I skinned the creature and made my fire. The boy was killed and eaten by a monster. I didn't know his name, nor anything else about him; but he was just a child, I knew that much.

Whatever killed him was dangerous. It would probably do it again if given the chance. _But not to me, goddamnit_ , I swore. I bowed my head in respect for the boy. I needed to get out of the cave before I ended up just like him though, because I didn't quite fancy a fight with an experienced man-eater.

 _The next time I see Raymond, I'll have to tell him about this,_ I thought. That kid's parents must've thought he was just prancing around somewhere, eating rice paddies or some shit with his pokemon. _Why do they let little kids do this?_ I wondered. I knew the answer though; it was because life was boring, and pokemon were just about the most exciting thing in the world. Maybe they let kids do it as a means of protection? Like if a gyarados started rampaging in a town, you'd need someone to contain it, and trainers were probably the most qualified to do it.

I skewered the marill and sat it in my fire. Jerry curled up next to the flames, keeping himself cozy and warm. Zevoa was still anxious, and staring into the darkness towards where we heard the roar. She sat in silence, uttering a series of deep and intimidating growls into the blackness, but with no response.

I got up and walked over to her, placing a hand on her head. She didn't react. She just kept gazed, like she was challenging whatever it was out there. Or pleading for it to stay away. Hopefully the latter.

I enjoyed my meal, maybe _enjoyed_ wasn't the right word to use. I forced the wet mouse down my throat for sustenance would be more appropriate. I then commanded Jerry to kick up some sand onto our fire. I packed up and left the area, rested and nourished, now I needed to get out of that cave. It did nothing for me except for make me paranoid. I was about a week into the cave, if I hurried I could get out of there in two or three days time.

 _XxXxXxXx_

I walked for about 3 hours straight, only resting for a few minutes before getting back up and walking some more. I had to return Jerry partway into it-he didn't have very good stamina. It was nice for Zevoa, though, it strengthened her leg muscles which made her faster, because science.

For some reason I couldn't shake the feeling that I was being followed by something. I would sometimes feel the ground quake ever-so-slightly, and Zevoa would start barking at something behind us, but nothing would be there. It was really creeping me out.

"Zev, get it!" I pointed to a particularly large paras. It had one two big mushrooms on it's back that were nearly conjoined. It was probably about to evolve. It would put up a decent fight for her.

Her fangs froze over, and she pounced on it. Her attempt was met with a flurry of spores shot from the mushroom directly into her face. I had seen that attack before, it was slightly-purplish in color, it was poison powder. She would pass out within a few minutes if I let her stay out. I returned her and sent out Jerry.

It had a type disadvantage, but he also had a rock type move in the form of rollout. "Jerry, poison sting!" His claws began to drip with a deep purple toxic secreting at the tip. He dashed at the insect and swiped at of it's mushrooms, leaving a shallow gash that was just deep enough to inject the poison into the pokemon's body.

The paras slashed at Jerry, and caught him in the chest. He hissed and retaliated with a wild but effective slash of his own. They dueled for a few seconds, trading blows before they broke up. "Roll up!" I yelled to him. He coiled up and sat for a second. The paras swiped at him, but couldn't damage his hard epidermis.

"Roll out!" Jerry shot forward like a cannonball and nailed the paras in the face. He kept going and made a wide turn around then blasted the paras again, this time in the mushroom, causing pieces of it to crumble. The paras screeched before it got knocked out by the third rollout.

Jerry uncoiled himself and looked up at me. I patted his little head, congratulated him before then returning him.

I decided to let Zevoa rest in her ball, hoping the poison would wear off if she would refrain from battle. I could handle myself for a while whilst in the cave, at least for a little while.

 _XxXxXxXx_

I trekked for another few hours, only stopping twice for food and water. Zevoa had gotten over the poison mostly, but she still looked dizzy and queasy. To occupy myself I took to trying to teach Zevoa how to sit and shake. Sitting was pretty easy for her to learn, but shaking was another story. For some reason she thought I was trying to hit her, so she bit me in the arm, tearing a chunk of flesh off of it. I made a note to buy bandages next time I went to Pewter.

Sometimes I would hear a something that sounded like the dirt and rocks were shifting. I dismissed it the first time, but as paranoid as I was, I started thinking of a million explanations to the sound; each one was scarier than the last.

More than once I would nearly fall into a sinkhole, like something had dug a trap. Or, at least I thought so. Maybe it was naturally occurring, maybe not; all I knew was that I was lucky not to fall into it.

I started to recognize some of the things in the cave, they were little reminders that I was going the right way out. Like that human shaped rock that managed to scare me again as I passed it once more. I ordered Jerry to destroy it with a rollout.

I found a group of old purplish needles. They were the needles from that boy's pokemon. From his nidoran. I laughed at the memory of me picking them from Zevoa's face. If that boy died, I wondered what may have happened to his pokemon? Did they put up a fight, or did that beast just kill them like it did their trainer? Or maybe they were still in their pokeballs, were they could have very well remained for eternity.

There were scorch marks on the floor too, from his charmander. I knew that meant I was close, because I was about a little under a day into the cave. I was very tired though, and decided to go to sleep. Of course, leaving Zevoa out to guard the campsite, which didn't bother her seeing as she was nocturnal.

Zevoa barked at something in the middle of my slumber. I shot up, shined my flashlight in the direction she was looking. Part of me wanted to just curl up in a corner and await my fate, thinking that I was sure to die. I knew what had killed that boy, and I knew what would kill me.

 **Sorry I couldn't post a chapter last week, the reason I was able to post every week before was because I had'em stacked up, edited and ready to go, but I just wrote this one. Please review, follow and favorite this story if you enjoyed.**


	11. Chapter 12

I never really had a near-death experience. The most terrifying moment of my life up until that point, was when I got lost in the forest during a camping trip, but I knew that I would ultimately come out of that situation alive. My encounter with Zevoa was scary, but the worst part was the pain of being bitten in that moment more so than the frightfulness of Zevoa herself. This was more than just pain, this was nightmare fuel.

It was easily 30 feet long, and visibly looked as if it were made of boulders. It's eyes were deep and black as coal, the pupils were nothing more than snake-like slits. It looked as if it had hundreds of razor sharp teeth. It could probably shred me to pieces along with both of my pokemon if it so desired.

It reared up and roared, shaking the entire cave with it's bellow. It swung its tail and shattered the wall. The wall made of many layers of thick stone and dirt, was _shattered_. I gulped and began to shake like it was below freezing.

I bit back a scream as I narrowly ducked under a swinging tail from the beast. Jerry scattered behind my leg, holding onto it for his dear life. Zevoa was the only one to take action, she leapt at the monster, her fangs frosting over into icicles. The behemoth of a creature roared as it got bit in the tail by my pokemon. It's tail rose a few feet into the air, and slammed down with the force of a blue whale doing a belly flop. She leapt away at the last second to avoid being crushed by the appendage.

I picked up Jerry and threw him full force at the beast. Before he hit the ground he curled into a ball, he crashed into the the stone floor and kept rolling in his spherical-state, until he smashed into the colossal titan of a beast. It brushed off the hit and whipped its tail, flinging Jerry into the wall like a soccer ball.

The wall splintered upon impact, but Jerry fell back to the floor and shot like a cannonball once again at the monster. This time it splintered the monster's body, making barely noticeable cracks in the epidermis of the creature.

I heard a howl, then saw Zevoa hanging off of the beast's single horn on it's head. Frost was beginning to form on the monster's head, then full-on ice started to develop. It screeched and shook Zevoa off, she landed but didn't hesitate to leap back on the pokemon. But this time it was ready. It blew multi-colored flames at the hyena, engulfing her in the blaze. She whined a blood-curdling sound. Then the flames died down, leaving a barely standing Zevoa shaking on her legs in it's wake.

"Zevoa!" I said as I ran over to her, however the beast stood in between us, keeping me from reaching my injured partner. I screamed and went to attack the creature, but my knife merely bounced off of it's skin. It swung it's powerful tail at me, sending me flying a dozen feet away onto my back. I gasped as I collided with the hard floor.

I layed for a moment. Contemplating my decision to battle the creature that weighed easily as much as 100 of me combined. Zevoa was knocked unconscious, possibly dead. Jerry was battling the monster one-on-one. I had to get up and help him. I had to return Zevoa too. She was probably experiencing the most intense pain of her entire life right then, she needed medical help. The pokeball would prevent her from getting damaged any further, atleast.

I struggled to my feet, knees buckling to support my weight. I witnessed Jerry fighting hand and tooth for himself against the enormous serpent, and doing very poorly. I noticed the exterior of the rock snake had a few more cracks and gashes than before, but was looking no more worse for wear. Jerry, however, looked like he was ready to pass out.

"Jerry, magnitude!" I commanded. The last time I used that technique the entire cave system shook, and rocks began to fall from the ceiling. It could've potentially been even stronger that time around. But if I didn't use it, I could probably have been killed anyway.

The caverns began to rumble, and little bits of debris sprinkled from the ceiling. The giant serpent looked up, just to be hit in the face by a boulder. It roared, which only worsened the situation. It caught another rock just before it touched down on it's head. Once in it's mouth, it crunched down hard enough to shatter the rock into little pebbles. I couldn't help but to think about how that could've been my skull in place of that rock.

While the rock snake was distracted, I returned Zevoa and made my getaway. Jerry was still out, his magnitude was still in-effect, and I nearly tripped from the intense trembling he was producing. I saw a vivid fire pass over my head, igniting my hoodie in blue-flames. I snuffed the small-fire out with my hand, creating a nasty burn-wound on my palm.

Suddenly I felt an intense heat on my back, it felt as if it burned throughout my entire body, from my feet to my head. I cried out in agony, and dropped to the ground. I curled into a fetal position and whined from the severe pain, tears streaming down my face like waterfalls. I cursed the air blue, and felt like I would soon lose consciousness.

The beast stood above me, his intimidating eyes looking down on me like I was a rodent in a mouse trap. Jerry smashed into the snake's face, knocking it onto the ground, inducing a quivering in the cave. I couldn't focus on what was happening, all I knew was that I was feeling the worst pain I had ever gone through in my life.

"Jerry, magnitude again!" He raised his arms in the air, and plunged his hands into the stone floor. He began to screech, his body trembled, and the cave quaked even worse than before. I was reduced to sticking to the ground, however, preventing me from get away from the dangerously unstable debris.

Cracks started forming on the ceiling, making it too unstable to hold itself. It toppled in, stones and rocks began to hit the ground at an alarming rate.

I climbed to my feet, despite the insane pain I was experiencing. I limped for the first few steps, if not for the adrenaline, I would've gotten crushed into a pancake. Eventually I gained my footing, but I was still shaky.

There was a startling roar that made me quake in my boots. I turned around to be met with a tail that slapped me so hard I flew like a fastball. I splatted onto the wall and then dropped on my ass, reeling from the pain in my spine. The rock snake rushed toward me with surprising speed, and within seconds it's face was just inches away from mine.

I could feel it's hot, rotting breath going into my nose. It opened it's mouth and bellowed, blowing my hair away from my face with the powerful wind it produced from it's voice. I screamed and cried futility. It was the end. It had to be. How could I possibly get out alive?

It's eyes were exposed. The only thing on it's body that could be exploited for my survival, if it couldn't see me, how could it attack me? I pulled my knife out and stabbed it. The mushy-eyeball made it feel as if I was skewering a grape. It was so delicate yet so crucial for the survival of any animal.

There was a moment of silence before the beast painfully screeched an ear-piercing, cringe-worthy noise. I looked down at my blade and saw a mushed-up white substance staining it. I looked over and saw Jerry laying unconscious on the ground. I returned him and ran as fast as I could towards where I thought the exit was.

I kept running until my stride slowed down into a walk, which turned into a limb as my injuries caught up to me. I began to feel the stinging and throbbing of my burns, my rib cage was severely bruised, and I was still very tired from being woken up before even getting an hour worth of sleep.

However I couldn't exactly just go to sleep where I was, that thing was probably looking for me as we spoke. I stopped at a small crevice in the wall, it was big enough to sleep in, but not big enough that the pokemon would immediately try and look for me in it.

I slipped inside of the crack, wrapped myself in my blanket, but couldn't fall asleep. I couldn't simply rest knowing that something was out there, looking for me. I wrapped up the blanket and got back up. No use in sitting there trying to fall asleep when I knew I couldn't. I might've slowly been turning into an insomniac.

There was nothing behind me but blackness. I limped along, my right leg was aching as if it were hit by a baseball bat. My breathing was rough, and I felt like garbage. I dropped to my knees from the pain, I cursed through my teeth and struggled back to my feet. I wrapped my fingers around Zevoa's pokeball. I did a pitiful excuse for a toss, and released the hyena pokemon.

She laid in a slump, her poor physical state was obvious. Sections of her fur were singed off, and one of her teeth were chipped. I felt up her chest, and could discern a few indents in her ribs. After my examination, I withdrew her back into her ball. I had no way to help her, she needed a real doctor.

Jerry was up next, and he was noticeably in better-shape than Zevoa. He could stand up, but his leg was bent at an awkward and painful angle. Other than that, his hard armor really worked wonders at protecting him. He still looked like he was in pain though, so I returned him.

A roar echoed across the cave, it was angry and deep. I limped back into my hiding place, not wanting to go round two with that giant. I went to the very back of the crack until I couldn't go back anymore. I laid down on my stomach and watched the entrance.

My heart raced, a dribble of sweat ran down my forehead. The cave trembled, and a long serpentine figure slithered past the crevice, impatiently searching for it's target, for it's revenge.

Despite the darkness, I could still see the side of it's face. It's empty eye-socket was faced towards me, I was in it's blind-spot. All I had to do was stay as quiet as possible, and it would pass by me without even noticing my presence…

It continued onward until I couldn't see anything but it's tail slowly moving out of my sight. I sighed in relief. My eyelids grew heavy, and I silently yawned. It was safe to rest. I could go to sleep. Not that I wanted to, but I had to.

I knocked out within a few minutes. I slept lightly, throughout my slumber I jumped at every little sound, and frequently woke up just to tend to my wounds.

My dreams were riddled with images of dead bodies and giant serpents ripping my pokemon apart limb from limb. They say dreams become reality, but how about nightmares?

 **Odd upload date, I know. Please review, favorite, and follow if you enjoyed and want to see more.**


	12. Chapter 13

**1500 views, thank you for reading.**

I woke up and felt only slightly better, my ribs still felt like trash and my leg still ached like hell. The pokemon was out of sight; I figured he had ditched his effort to kill me and just went back to his nest, which was a relief to say the least. I still kept on my toes, just in case it tried me again. Not that I could do anything about it if it did try and kill me.

Zevoa looked a little better too, she could walk, albeit not very fast. She wasn't going around picking fights, and instead decided to stick to my side. Jerry looked a lot better, his leg was still twisted awkwardly though. I picked him up and sat him on my shoulder, but he was far too heavy to be supported by my weak muscles. Maybe if he was five pounds lighter I could do it. So I just carried him in my arms like a baby.

I hadn't eaten in quite a while, but I didn't want to send Zevoa off to go find food. I needed her for my protection. I did see a paras, which got me to thinking. Would it taste like crab, or like an insect? I mean, I tasted crab before, and ate a fried spider, which tasted a little shrimp-y. But paras were grass types, so maybe they were salad-y? Either way, I wouldn't be eating them any time soon. They were creepy as hell.

I couldn't be any more impatient, the cave was becoming so tiresome and draining to travel through, I just wanted to go outside and get some fresh air and sunlight. I would be happy if I never had to go into another cave for the rest of my life.

"Zevoa, ice fang!" I pointed towards a rattata. If it was inside of the cave; that had to mean I was really close to the exit. My logic was that a rattata wouldn't dare venture into the deeper parts of the cave, it would be far too risky. It got extremely cold, and most everything down there was carnivorous from what I'd seen. It would have much better luck living in forest and grasslands. There were more places to hide and forage in habitats such as that.

She jumped on the creature, pinning the rat's tail beneath her foot. She then proceeded to snatch it up by it's head and crush it's skull. "Thanks, girl," I scratched her behind the ear while taking the rat from in between her jaws. I held it in my hands by the tail while walking, planning to skin and cook the rodent once I got outside.

I felt cool wind hit my face, then squinted my eyes and saw the light. I got giddy, and almost darted off before I remembered having to cross the bridge. I slowed down and looked around; shining my flashlight and scanning across the floor, trying to see where the crossing point was.

Upon locating it, I took a gulp and began to cross the creaky drawbridge. Each step was a step towards me becoming more and more anxious about whether I'd make it to the other side. I held on to the rope on the side to steady myself, although I could only do so with one hand, seeing as I had the rattata in my other.

I resisted the urge to look down whilst traversing the structure. I went to my happy place, which was a stereotypical field full of tulips and junk. I still had about ten feet to go, all I'd have to do was finish that and I'd be home free. But that was easier said than done.

I took a deep breath, and walked as fast as possible with my eyes shut. I felt solid ground beneath my feet, and opened my eyes. I looked around, then felt the cave quaked. I didn't have to turn around to hear the angry roar of the monster, I already knew exactly what was behind me. I cursed the air blue, then turned around to face the beast.

"Oh my god!" On the other side of the bridge their was the rock snake, mouth agape in an angry bellow. Purple flames erupted from its throat, which I just barely managed to dodge. Zevoa howled in an attempt to intimidate it. I just stood there, too terrified to move

The snake coiled itself into an S-shaped position, and vaulted like a spring, clean over the bridge. It landed behind me, blocking me from exiting the cave. Jerry dropped out of my grip and dug his arms into the ground upon landing; creating a tremor. But before he could really get the attack going; the rock snake smacked Jerry across the cave, he landed just barely on the edge of the deep slope behind us. Just another few inches and he would've fell to his doom.

"Zevoa, ice fang!" She did as instructed and trotted up to the beast. It screeched ear piercingly, making me cover my ears with my palms. Zevoa wasn't so lucky, she went down reeling from the pain, whining a high-pitched noise. There was a bowling ball shaped-thing that crashed into the pokemon's head, abruptly interrupting the horrible sound. The ball landed and uncurled itself to reveal that it was Jerry, standing and hissing in an attempt to appear menacing.

The serpent had a large crack on the side of it's head, spilling out crimson liquid. I smiled, it wasn't looking too good for it. At that point, all I would need was a distraction and I could escape by running on it's blindside until I was home-free.

Zevoa snuck behind the beast and pounced up from behind it, latching onto it's horn with icy-fangs. It tried to toss her off, but she just bit down harder in response. Eventually it decided it had enough, and smashed it's head into the ground, trying to crush her. But she jumped off at just the right moment; escaping her death my mere milliseconds. The onix slowly rose back up after getting a little dizzy from the impact, and shook off the damage, looking irritated by the assault from my pokemon.

Jerry ran up to the massive snake and started delivering a barrage of scratches at it's long body. The pokemon whipped it's tail onto the ground, making a dust cloud big enough to blow all of us back. "Zevoa, talk to me!" I called out into the cave, the dust was obstructing my vision too much to be able to find her myself. My question was soon answered, as I heard a howl and the sound of yelping echo...to the right of me. I turned in the direction and ran until I smacked into a mountain of rocks. I knew what it was, and instinctively ducked, knowing that a muscular and powerful tail was about to knock me silly if I didn't. I was right, and looked up just to see said tail sailing above me, missing it's target completely.

I climbed up and ran a while away until I felt I would be safe to keep commanding my pokemon without being attacked myself. The dirt cloud settled, and I saw a figure resembling Zevoa combating the rock snake faintly in the distance. I heard a sound similar to a baseball bat hitting wood, producing a clap, then I saw a black form darting through the air, but it took me a second to realize it was Zevoa.

She flew over the edge of the slope, and I could see her hanging onto the solid ground by the tip of her claws. I sprinted over and grabbed her paws, pulling her up with all of my strength. I looked back and witnessed a spectacle of Jerry climbing up the snake's back and scratching the back of it's head with his razor sharp claws. Zevoa ran over to his aid, taking a hold of the tip of it's tail with icy fangs, tugging and pulling at it, trying her hardest to tear a chunk off.

The pokemon roared, and the cave vibrated. The stone slabs grew more and more out of the ground. One shot out of the ground right where Zev' was standing, and she narrowly escaped being impaled by it. A couple fell from the ceiling, although these were smaller, and I was able to dodge them with little trouble. One of them did smash into Jerry, and with his small frame he was unable to stay in his position on top of the beast's head, so he was knocked off.

"Zev, scary face!" I commanded, my plan of action was that she could slow it down long enough for me to get out of the cave, I could return her and Jerry then make a run for it. There were lots of places for me to escape to if I was outside in the wilderness.

She growled lowly, her sclera glowed a brighter yellow than before, and her irises became a deep bloody red. I even got a little frightened at the sight. She snapped her jaws together, growling and snarling for added intimidation. She then emitted a chilling howl that made me shake in my boots. The onix backed down for just a moment, and for a second I thought it was my moment to escape. But Jerry shot into the pokemon's face with a rollout, distracting Zevoa from being able to properly use her technique.

As Jerry was falling back onto the floor; the creature yanked Jerry up by his tail and took him into it's mouth. Jerry rested on the beast's tongue, rolled into a ball, slowly being crunched in the monster's jaw.

"Jerry, get out of there!" I screamed uselessly, but I knew he was helpless in the pokemon's jaws.

There were ruptures forming on the sandshrew's exterior. Even though I couldn't see his face, he was feeling the most intense pain he ever experienced in his life, but I couldn't do anything about it.

This was my opportunity, it was my chance to leave the cave. But I couldn't leave without Jerry, I couldn't just betray my partner like that. Whether he did that on purpose, or just because he wasn't quick enough to get away, didn't matter. I needed to help him, but I couldn't. A torrent of tears flowed down my cheek, I yelled painfully at him, trying my hardest to stay stable, but I was breaking down.

"I'm so sorry, Jerry…" I sobbed, blood ran from his body by that point, the shell was almost all the way cracked, I wasn't even sure if he was still alive. I ran on shaky knees, and turned back only once to see the murderous beast swallow Jerry whole, and pursue me with a thin stream of blood going down it's mouth.

I finally made my way out of the cave, rain was falling from the sky, drenching my clothing from top to bottom. Fitting. I wasn't as happy as I thought I would be at making it out.

The onix stood right at the edge of the exit, it couldn't go out in the rain, probably in part because of it's rock typing. It was staring me down. I could see it in it's single snake-eye. It was waiting for me to come back. Waiting to get vengeance on me, if not just for it's eye, but for it's pride. We would meet again. For my partner, even though I didn't know him for very long, he didn't deserve to die in such a brutal way. For doing that to him, that monster would suffer. I swore on my own life that I would get Jerry's retribution, no matter what.

 **I didn't want to kill Jerry, I really like sandshrew as a pokemon, and to imagine him getting crushed to death was even worse. My fingers have a twisted mind of their own. But your finger's aren't evil at all; because they reviewed, Favorited and followed this story.**


	13. Chapter 14

**Hope you enjoy, please review, follow and favorite.**

I endured a month of the most intense training I could possibly do. Zevoa was many times stronger than she was that month prior, but as her physical strength grew, my mental strength got considerably weaker.

Every night I was tortured by nightmares, every single one was a scenario where I could've saved Jerry had I been brave enough. Or it was sometimes an image of Zevoa in Jerry's place, being crushed to death by that monster's massive jaws.

I needed to kill that thing; not only to avenge Jerry, but because I felt it was the only way to gain my sanity back.

Often times if I couldn't even fall asleep in the first place, I sat up, thinking of strategies to take it down. I even bought a squirt gun, because if I knew onix were 4x weak to water; so I figured maybe that could be my method of bringing it down.

I battled and defeated several people during my training; I gained over 450 crown all together, and planned to spend it on supplies that day. I would be heading off to fight the thing the next day, just me and Zevoa. At that moment I was on route 3, the part closest to Pewter, so it wouldn't take too long to get to the city. I began trekking, Zev' in tow. I would go buy my supplies, spend a night in the city then head out to in the morning.

It was afternoon, thirteen-hundred hours, to be exact. It was November, I didn't have much more than 7 to 8 hours of sunlight most days. Dawn was around zero seven hundred hours, and sundown was around sixteen hundred hours. A stray snowflake would fall, a subtle reminder that winter was coming. I was just hoping I wouldn't be caught in any blizzards, the last thing I would want is to be stuck in a goddamned avalanche.

I felt a finger tap me on the shoulder. I was used to it, I didn't even turn around to meet the challenger. I pulled out Zevoa's pokeball and tossed it onto the ground. Just as my pokemon appeared, she turned around, already prepared for the upcoming battle. She stood there and growled at the person behind me, I kept walking until I felt I reached a far enough distance from the person, then turned around to see their face.

It was a young boy, in his mid-teens, with long red-hair and freckles. I grinned at his goofy looking beaver teeth and pale white skin. The kid looked silly. He fumbled around for his pokeball; upon finding it, it lossed its balanced in his hand as he clumsily tried to keep it from dropping. And to top it all off, he tried to play it off by laughing like an dumb ass.

The ball released an upright standing frog. It had white markings on both of it's hands, like gloves. A swirl-like pattern covered it's belly; completing it's already odd look. I smirked, a poliwhirl. Piece of cake.

"Zevoa, scary howl!" She pointed her nose in the sky and let out an eerie cry, all the while her eyes were glowing. Goosebumps ran up my arm, after all that time I still wasn't used to the move. I laughed a little to myself, eliciting an odd look from the red headed trainer.

"Hypnosis, then douse it!" The poliwhirl couldn't move, it was paralyzed from fear. It was a combination technique, scary face plus howl. The attack boosted her damage output, whilst frightening her opponent into being unable to attack her. It allowed her to become immensely more powerful without running the risk of being attacked. It was incredibly convenient in nearly all situations.

"Now tear it apart," I said calmly. I knew I would win the battle. The bad side of the technique was that as soon as she stopped employing it, the opponent would snap out of its trance. On a few instances, a pokemon was fast enough to block her next move as soon as she stopped the scary howl, but usually they still got knocked out unless they managed to totally get out of the way. But I didn't think that would be the case that time.

"Bubbles!" The trainer frantically yelled, the poliwag quickly covered the entire field with enough bubbles to completely block my view of the battle. I heard something like the sound of a fireman's hose, and then felt a blast of ice cold water hit me right in the face, drenching my entire upper body.

"Zevoa, i'm gonna need you to stop holding back. Hit it with all you got, that damn thing just soaked me in water and i'll be damned if that goes unpunished," I said irately. "I don't care what you do; just don't kill it like you did last time."

As the bubbles slowly began being swept away by the breeze; I could see the frog pokemon fighting tooth and nail to stay alive against Zevoa. She moved faster than the poliwag could detect; her bites were slowly tearing it's skin from it's body. The match was heavily stacked against her opponent, all it could do by that point was feebly block it's face from further damage.

"Just return the thing, it can't fight anymore and we both know it," I yelled over the sounds of combat. I could see the trainer contemplating my words, as he slowly reached for his pokeball to return it. The poliwag laid in a slump on the ground before it was absorbed into its capture orb with a beam of red light.

I slowly strutted up to the trainer, not even planning to except my prize money. I already had more than enough, and every time I accept the cash I always felt like I was robbing the trainer. Who knows, he could've needed the money for supplies or something.

He reached into his bag, digging out his wallet. He flipped through the bills, but I interrupted him, "I don't need it, just keep all of your cash. I've got a bunch anyway." The redheaded boy looked surprised, and did as he was told; putting the wallet back in his bag. He smiled at me with his big goofy teeth.

"What's that move that you used first? Wasn't it 'scary howl,' or something? It's really cool, combining two moves like that. I've only ever seen gym leaders and really talented trainers do stuff like that. It must've been difficult," he praised. I could feel a blush coming on, but because of his compliment, I felt the need to act suave and cool; I wouldn't wanna look like a moron around someone who thought that highly of me.

"Uh, thanks, but I'm not _that_ good. Zevoa here is just a really good listener," I reached over and scratched her behind the ear. She nipped me in the hand, and I yelped possibly the most effeminate sound a man could ever made.

"I was gonna do something like that with my poliwhirl, maybe a water punch or something along those lines. That bubble attack took a while to master; I wanted that technique to encompass the entire field rather than just a direct-attack. It really messes with fire pokemon, on top of obscuring the opponents pokemon's vision, it's pretty cool." He laughed, rubbing the back of his neck awkwardly.

"Good idea, anyway, gotta go. I want to get to Pewter by dark, and it's already getting late," I said. It really wasn't that late, but I didn't feel like sticking around talking to the kid. He was nice and all, but me talking to him did nothing positive for me, so why would I do it?

I waved behind at him as I sauntered off. I kept going until I could no longer hear the sound of his boots hitting the dirt of the rocky trail. I looked behind myself, just to see if he had been following me. He seemed nice enough, but you never know if he wanted to rob me or something because he felt like he deserved to win that battle.

My interactions with the various pokemon in the cave made me very wary of every living thing around me. I had an onix stalk me for 2 days and kill one of my pokemon, how could you blame me for being a little cynical?

Once I deemed the area safe, I continued onward. One thing I was grateful for after escaping that cave was how beautiful everything looked on the outside. The trail was a collection of rocks, some as small as my fingernail, some bigger than my fist. Hills rose from the ground; big enough that I couldn't see anything beyond them without getting to the top of them first. It reminded me of a miniature Rocky Mountains except with less trees.

A few dry-bushes kept the landscape from becoming too plain, otherwise it would just be full of grey and black terra. They were the only vegetation in the entire environment, therefore most pokemon hid in them to keep warm during the nights and protect against predators during the day.

It had been an entire month. If being in that cave taught me one thing, it was that you should always appreciate the little things. Fresh air, sunlight, they were always things that I would never really pay any mind to.

I thought about how well Zevoa's new technique worked out, and how he had said that experienced trainers could combine moves like how I did. Sometimes I would sit and think about what someone like Terry Palmer, or Raymond would handle the very same situations I find myself in if we were to trade places.

Terry seemed like she already was way smarter than me. Just the way that she commanded her pokemon, and her clever way of robbing people by luring them into her room then destroying them in a battle the next day.

She would've probably handled the onix a lot differently than I did. Her slowpoke could've put a ton of pressure on it due to it's water type attacks. Her growlithe was far too fast to be hit by it's attacks, and I wouldn't have been surprised if it could toe to toe with it as far as raw strength. She was probably far stronger than she was the last we spoke, and I wouldn't doubt if she had an arcanine and maybe a brand new pokemon under her belt now.

I wasn't really sure about Raymond, as I had never witnessed him in combat enough to make an actual judgement about his intelligence. All I could gather from him was that he was a trainer for a long time, and I had seen first hand how hard that was. Every one of his pokemon were probably leagues stronger than Zevoa, and I doubted that he was even the strongest trainer in the Ranger Corps.

How he would handle the onix, is out of the question. It would be a complete slaughter. His sawsbuck had an aura about it. It radiated power, like it had been in countless brawls, and had seen a lot of blood in it's life. I wouldn't want to fight that thing if you gave me a pot of gold.

"Zevoa, ice fang, heavy," I commanded, pointing at a groundhog with a thick skull on it's head, going about it's way. I easily recognized it as a cubone. She dashed at it, but her head was met by a bone club, knocking her to the ground.

It proceeded to bash her head in while she was dazed. She rolled over and got to her feet, it swung its club once more, but Zev ducked it and grabbed the bone from its hands. She bit down and snapped it in half. It fell to the ground in two; the cubone then leapt at Zevoa with its arms raised, claws out.

Zevoa backed away for just a second. Her fangs iced over, growing to over twice their regular length. You could no longer see the white of her teeth, all I could see on her fangs were many layers of thick ice. She pounced on the cubone, pinning it down with her powerful paws. Her 6 inch fangs dug into the groundhogs abdomen, freezing all of it's organs from the inside out, killing it instantly.

The new ice fang was much more powerful, it could sometimes freeze things solid. But the downside was that it took a pretty long time to execute. Sometimes if I didn't have the time, I would just use the normal, less potent ice fang, but it would rarely ever KO a pokemon.

It took a while to master, though. Her mouth kept freezing over, and I would have to break the ice off of her teeth sometimes. At least it was easier to teach than the other two fang attacks. Thunder fang would start backfiring before she actually employed it. Fire fang was too uncontrollable, and it would kill things too cruelly and morbidly for my taste.

I almost commanded Zevoa to go find something for me to eat, but then I remembered I had bought a ton of rations the last time I headed to the store. I reached in my bag and grabbed some jerky, protein bars and a water bottle. I sat down on a boulder, and started eating my lunch.

When I got out of the cave, I went to the pokemon center to get Zevoa checked out. One of the nurses saw me, and said that I was under-fed, and that I needed to start eating more or I could fall ill. Apparently the average weight for someone who was my age was 130 pounds, and I was fifteen pounds under that.

At first I just ignored her advice and went on with my business, but then I really did get sick. I couldn't even find the energy to get up in the morning, and would struggle to even throw Zevoa's pokeball. After I got better, I started eating right again. I took a portion of my money and set it aside for food every time I won a battle. I ate three times a day, and gained back all of the weight I loss over the course of the month.

Zevoa was also in better shape. The average weight of her species was about ninety-pounds, but when I made it out of the cave she was seventy. All of the nurses lectured me about how to properly take care of my pokemon, to which I had to explain to them the circumstances which caused her skinny sickly appearance.

"Zevoa, go find some meat," I ordered. I still made her hunt her own food, but I gave her vitamins too on the side. While waiting for her, I flipped open my little notepad and began going over my strategies.

I thought of a few over the month, but they all required a second pokemon to execute them. I felt a sting in my heart at the thought of Jerry. I needed another pokemon, but no matter what I got it wouldn't be able to fill the void he left behind.

I came so close to catching a pidgey, but the pokeball missed and it took off into the sky. I felt like if I didn't come across another pidgey or something like that, then I would probably end up having to catch a rattata. I shook at the thought. It didn't feel right catching one, seeing as how I had the blood of its species on my hands.

Zevoa had got back, with a rattata tail hanging from the side of her mouth. I laughed to myself, yeah, I could never catch one of those.

I let her eat it raw with its fur. The nurses suggested that I should skin and cook her meat, but that seemed kind of like a waste of time. She was about 2 years old, she survived for most of her life in the woods. Her whole life she was eating raw meat, it wouldn't hurt to keep doing what she had been doing for years already. After all, if it ain't broke don't fix it, right?

I got up and hit the trail again, Zevoa in tow. She ran ahead, trotting up the rocky road until she was out of my vision. I wasn't worried though, she never got lost. I looked down at my map, 5 miles to go. Easy enough.

 _XxXxXxXx_

It was dusk, and I had finally made it to Pewter, that dreaded city. If there were any other options; I would probably never go to Pewter no matter the circumstances. It was so boring, with the brick roads and brick buildings. Who the hell had the smart idea to have boulders on every corner for decoration? It just looked stupid.

I rented a room at the pokemon center, one of the bigger ones so that I could release Zevoa and let her stretch. I couldn't stand to keep her locked up in a ball. She was an animal, and she needed to act as such. No matter how much I trained her, I would never make her any less than a wild animal. And wild animals don't deserve to be locked up in cage.

I made my way up into my room, once I opened the door, I took in the feeling of the room. It had been such a long time since I had slept on anything other than a pile of rocks.

I tossed my hat onto the mattress. My shirt and pants went right along with it, and I hopped into the shower soon after. My skin had more than 2 months worth of layers of dirt and mud on it. I had to scrub at every inch of my body with my fingernails because the washcloth just wouldn't do.

Once I was clean, I just stood there, enjoying the hot water cascading down my body. It was so relaxing and relieving that I felt like I was about to fall asleep inside of the tub. I switched off the water before that might've actually happened. It would suck that the way I would go out, after I had experienced so much shit, would be to crack my skull up against the inside of a bathtub because I was too tired to get out.

After I was done with my shower, I got on my bed and didn't even bother putting on my clothes. Zevoa was long asleep on the other bed. I stared at her, thinking about all of my experiences with her. I could potentially lose them all the very next day.

It never really hit me until I was relaxed and calm enough to really think. Terry, Raymond, Zevoa, all of my memories with them, all of my memories of my family, and friends from my world, all of it, could potentially be lost once I proceeded with my plan to avenge Jerry. Was it really worth it? It had to be, he sacrificed his life for me, so it would only be fitting for me to avenge his death.

But, it wasn't right to kill myself after he had died to keep me from dying. My life wouldn't be the only one to be lost, as Zevoa could potentially die in the battle too. It was selfish of me.

No, I would follow through. That thing would die even if it took every fiber of my being to bring it down, I swore. Jerry, 2 young boys, and even more people could potentially meet their end at the hands of that beast if I didn't do something about it. This was personal, and it would only be fitting if I was the one to end it's life.

Those thoughts taunted my brain for the rest of the night, even whilst I slept, they even appeared in my dreams, telling me not to go through with my plan, telling me to quit before I hurt myself. Even though those thoughts seemed logical enough, I just couldn't stop. I spent an entire month training for that day, that would be an entire month wasted if I decided to back out of my decision.

I sighed, and coaxed myself into going to sleep. I needed it, whether I would fight the onix the next day or not. Even if I was going to experience the same nightmares as I had every other night, I needed my rest.

Those thoughts made me want to go back to my world. Back to Jersey, where everything was normal. Where I could just lay in my bed playing pokemon, go to school, be a nurse, blah blah blah. But I had Zevoa to look after, and it wouldn't be fair to her if I were to go back to my world. And it wouldn't exactly look right if I walked around with a hyena in the streets of Newark.

I slowly lost consciousness, and once again delved into a pool of negative emotions and nightmares. No matter what I did the next day, I could never escape my dreams. I would keep having those images appear. It seemed like every day only existed for the purpose of driving me closer and closer to becoming a insomnia-ridden maniac.

 **Sorry that I haven't uploaded in a while, but here is a chapter to calm your nerves. Even though I doubt anyone was ripping there hair out over the fact I haven't uploaded in 2 weeks. Anyway, I'll try and make these more frequent, but no promises. Review, favorite and follow, I'd appreciate the feedback, it motivates me to keep doing this story. :]**


	14. Chapter 15

"Zev', up." I said. I had brushed my teeth and did my morning routine. I was ready to hit the trail. As a matter of fact, the only thing that was stopping me was Zevoa. That damned thing slept like a bear, and I thought hyenas were supposed to be nocturnal? "Zevoa, now, c'mon!" I pushed her off of the bed, causing her to fall and wake up in a daze. She registered my presence, then climbed back up onto her spot and laid back down.

"Damnit," I fished out her pokeball and simply returned her. No use in irritating her any further, I wouldn't want to get on her bad side. I opened up the cheap wooden door of the room, and stepped into the hallway.

As I made my way down the steps, I opened my wallet and counted all of my bills. 400 crown, enough cash for more than enough supplies for my trek. I would need some batteries for my flashlights, maybe some more food, and a shit ton of water. Last time I was in the cave I had to take the condensation from the walls and boil it. It was bootleg as hell.

I checked out at the counter then made my way to the store that I became so accustomed to over the month. I had gone to Pewter at least once a week, and I would get supplies every time I got there.

 _XxXxXxXx_

I had bought more than a week's worth of reserves, on top of the ones I already had, and 2 gallons of water. I bought a vest of sorts for Zevoa, I used it to strap supplies on to her back so that I wouldn't constantly be having to carry it. It even had a built in GPS, just in case she got lost then I'd be able to locate her pretty easily.

But most importantly of all, 12 rolls of divine, sacred, holy toilet paper. Toilet paper had to be top 3 things to worry about before going on a trip. I had given more money than I'd like to admit all for a few rolls of the stuff when I was on the field. Most people would agree that it doesn't feel too pleasant using leaves or moss to do your business. They would give the same amount of money for some rolls too I bet.

I was at the outskirts of the city, when I felt a finger tap on my shoulder. I dropped Zevoa's pokeball, preparing for another challenge. A familiar face stood behind me though, the dark-haired olive skinned ranger that I had grown to know greeted me with a smile.

"Thought you'd been that way before?" He pointed in the direction I was walking. He didn't seem to pay any mind to the growling pokemon to his right. "That thing is a lot bigger than I remember." He reached down to pet her behind the ear, and received a nip to the hand. He smacked her upside her head, eliciting a growling noise from her. I decided to return the hyena before she decided to take a bite off Raymond's ass.

"Where you off to Ray?" I asked him, motioning for him to walk with me. I stuck my hands in my hoodie pockets and adjusted my cap.

"No where, just taking a walk. I'm off for the week, or at least until I get called in. They only need me for the big stuff, if there is no big stuff happening, then they don't need me," he finished with a laugh. "What're you doing?" What could I say? I couldn't exactly tell him I was going to exact my revenge on a giant serpent beast that killed 2 people, could I?

"I'm, uh, just gonna go train Zev' some more in the cave." Good excuse, his face showed he believed it.

"Can I come with you? I mean, I'll be out probably in a day or two. You won't have to put up with me for too long," he laughed. Shit, that would put a halt to my plans. With him around, I knew that he would interfere with my plot, but I couldn't exactly tell him he couldn't go; that would be too suspicious. I'd just travel slowly, then when the two days are up, I'd just quickly go into the depths of the cave to challenge the onix.

"Sure, but you're not eating my food," I laughed, punching his arm jokingly. He replied with a smack to the back of my head. I was gonna hit him again, but thought twice about it; he was easily half a foot taller than me, and could probably demolish me in a fight. He chuckled at my behavior, looking at me like I was his younger brother or something.

"Don't worry, I'll hunt for my own grub. I've been training a lot longer than you have, kid, I can kill and skin a rattata with my eyes closed," he pulled out a long blade and waved it around, making cutting noises as he swung it in the air. I blocked my face with my hands out of paranoia, but he put it back with a laugh.

"Alright, now we begin," he said, looking at the sign that read 'Now Leaving Pewter City, Starting Route 3.' So we had about 15 miles before we hit the cave? Well, I guess I would need the exercise.

* * *

"Alright, so imagine how a krabby taste, right?" It was around noon, and we had taken a break to rest and eat. Raymond was munching on a rattata that he had ordered his houndoom to roast for him. I was devouring some beef jerky and trail mix. We had been conversing about what it would be like to taste various pokemon, and the mortality in eating certain ones. We had basically just been mindlessly flapping our lips for a while about different topics, but then we hit a juicy one and decided to stick with it.

"You've never tried a krabby? I figured if someone lived in Kanto as long as you have they might've tried it at least once or twice," I said past my chewing.

"Yeah, I've eaten it a few times. But a guy in my squad has a kingler as his starter, and that thing is a decent pokemon. So it wouldn't feel right eating a member of it's species, you know?" The old ranger explained, picking the thin pieces meat away from the rattata bone.

"Nah, I don't get it. I mean, it's not like the crab can sense it's blood on your hands or anything," I laughed with a mouth full of nuts. Oh wait, that didn't sound right. I laughed with a mouth full of food, is what I meant.

"Okay, if I walked around with a mightyena pelt on my back, you wouldn't exactly feel comfortable around me, would you?"

"Alright, I get feel you now," I got up to my feet and dusted off my pants. I called Zevoa over. She was gnawing on the femur of some large pokemon. She likely just found the carcass setting around somewhere rotting and decided to snatch a little snack. As soon as she got up, Raymond's houndoom ran over and seized the bone for himself. This incited a little barking fight between the two, resulting in Raymond having to return it before things got messy. That thing could likely tear Zevoa apart.

I looked up into the sky as his fearow flew overhead. It was also searching for something to eat, but was having some trouble as the skies above were fairly empty. Apparently it was a scavenger, but it leaned more towards fresh meat most of the time. It's eyes twinkled, and I immediately knew it found something. The magnificently large condor swooped down onto the ground as it snatched up a small mammalian creature that looked as if it was merely a ball of fur.

As the condor had it's prey in its clutch, it flew back over to us, showcasing its prey to Raymond and I. The little creature was being held up by the skin of its neck as it thrashed about violently. I took a good look at it's face, it was very odd looking. A pig snout, with the build of a monkey. It had sort of an aggressive aura about it too, and not just because it was about to be swallowed up by a giant bird. It was almost as if it was inherently angry. In a constant state of being pissed off.

The fearow dropped the monkey momentarily, and we watched as it nimbly hopped up and punched the bird in its long beak. The fearow, cawed a painful noise and responded with a swift peck towards the ground where the monkey was standing, but the pokemon had backflipped out of the way. It leapt up once more, and the bird moved it's beak out of the way, predicting an assault to the area similar to what the monkey had done the last time. But the pokemon kept going and grabbed the bird around it's neck. It then began attempting a stranglehold with it's legs and arms.

"C'mon Carrion, you're an elite Ranger pokemon and you can't even beat some random ass mankey?" He sighed as he dug out another pokeball and threw it in the general direction of Carrion. It bounced off of a rock, activating the eject button and releasing his houndoom, Nathan, with a flash of light.

"Nathan, go handle that," he pointed at the mankey. Immediately the houndoom began puffing out black smoke like a tank engine. It blasted a fireball at the mankey, causing it to jump from it's position on the bird's neck and onto the ground.

Zevoa became anxious, but I held her back. I would rather let the professional handle it than risk letting her get hurt. After all, mankey had an advantage towards dark type pokemon. I'd basically be letting her get torn apart for no gain, and frankly I didn't have the money to pay that medical bill.

The mankey flipped over fireball after fireball, maneuvering past each one with ease. But it wasn't able to counter attack in any way, seeing as it was mostly a physically oriented pokemon.

Despite how it might've seemed, that the mankey was giving those two pokemon a run for there money; it was truly no match for the two pokemon. It was merely annoying them. Trying to make them give up on it. Smart. I would've taken a more direct approach of simply trying to murder them both. Most people would probably do that as a matter of fact. We would all almost definitely get killed for our decision. It's a shame really, that a monkey had more sense than most people do.

It made a risky move, and decided to rush the houndoom in between fire blast. It moved forward faster than my eyes could follow. As soon as it stopped, it was directly in front of Nathan, fist pulled back about to deliver a powerful strike to the face. The houndoom blasted a wave of flames at the mankey, which at such a close range were impossible to dodge. The mankey was sent backwards by the torrent of fire, it was damaged very badly, but it had gotten back up and raised its fist once more.

It was the fearows turn now, it flew up into the air at blinding speeds and dived at the mankey like a jetplane. The mankey barely saved itself from being skewered like a monkey kebab. The pokemon attempted to counter attack, but the fearow soared up into the air once more.

"Air cutter!" Raymond commanded the fearow, it was at a position in the sky hovering 50 feet above the ground, waiting for Raymond's orders. It started flapping it's wings, firing off blades of air that were nigh unavoidable. One of the air blades struck the mankey, slicing it across the chest startling ease.

The mankey struggled to it's feet, but collapsed onto the ground with a thump. Blood seeped out from beneath the monkey and onto the rocks, soon soaking everything around it with a crimson liquid. It wasn't dead, but it would be soon enough. I ran over to it and stood in front of it just as the fearow flew in to capture it's meal.

"Call the bird off!" I yelled towards Raymond. He understood what I meant, but didn't seem to agree with what I was about to do. I flipped the mankey over onto it's back as I dug out some medical supplies from my bag.

"What the hell are you doing, Floyd?" The ranger strutted over, closely inspecting my fingers dart from item to item in my backpack. "You aren't planning to catch that thing are you?" Raymond asked, but he knew the answer.

The entire time it was fighting his pokemon, I was observing its movements with a very sharp eye. Something about how that thing nimbly dodged attacks, and how it was able to strike with pin-point precision at his pokemon, caught my eye. I somehow felt that it would be a perfect partner for me. Aggressive, nimble, powerful, all things that I would look for in a pokemon.

On top of that, it was the only decent pokemon around for miles. I needed a partner to help me combat the onix, and he had a natural advantage towards it. It would've been foolish to pass up the chance to catch such a good pokemon.

It seems stupid, I know. That thing was probably leagues stronger than what I could handle. It was probably untameable, and wouldn't follow any orders given to it no matter what. But I thought the same thing about Zevoa. That ape would do great by my side. If nothing else, I could say that I at least saved it's life.

"Carrion, get back!" He returned his fearow, as it was getting a little annoyed by my behavior. I had found all of the equipment I needed. The mankey wasn't too badly injured, just a flesh wound. I had to stitch up the slash, then return it and let it heal in its pokeball for a while. Luckily I would have Raymond around to put it in line if it decided to attack me once it was fully healed.

"You a doctor or something?" He asked, looking over my shoulder observing all of the movements of my fingers sewing up the large slash wound across the mankeys chest.

"No, I was just a nurse for a while," I kept my answer short, as to not distract myself from my task at hand. I only had about half way to go, and the ape had long passed out from the pain.

"Huh, well maybe you should've told me you wanted to have this thing _before_ Carrion tore it's torso open. It would save you the trouble," he snarked. I paid him no mind though, he was just trying to press my buttons and make me break my focus.

"Then again, I guess you like things to be as difficult as possible. That's probably why you caught that damn mightyena," he laughed at himself dorkily. I was nearly finished with the patch-job. All I would have to do afterward was wrap it in some bandages then it would be all set.

"Keep talking trash about my pokemon and she'll bite your ass off," I spat back at him. He chuckled and I could see him reach behind me to pet Zevoa, but received a bite on his fingers. I could hear him holler in pain, and I had to repress a laugh at his foolishness. He should've known better than to touch a one-hundred pound killing machine.

He crouched back down to my level, squeezing his hand, trying to keep it from bleeding too badly. "You got anything for this in that bag of yours?" He flashed his bleeding finger at me, I assessed it and decided it wasn't too bad of a lesion.

"Just get a band-aid," I temporarily took my hand away from the monkey and pointed at the box of medical equipment right next to me. I heard him fishing through it before he pulled out a smaller box of medical grade bandages. He followed his discovery up with a wa-ha! then plopped down on the ground.

I got the mankey all fixed up, then returned it to it's pokeball, hoping that it would be fully healed the next time I released it. "Even if you did a bad job, which you most likely did, Floyd, pokemon heal up a lot faster than humans do," I smacked him on the back of his head for his comment, then packed up my equipment and hit the trail.

 _XxXxXxXx_

It was dusk, and we had finally made it to the cave entrance. We were all exhausted and ready to pass out right where we stood. I had never released the monkey, and didn't plan to at least until the next day.

The day wasn't very eventful. Other than me being able to observe an epic battle, and capture an epic pokemon, it was pretty boring. Maybe I just had really high standards? Zevoa was curled up in a ball next to a fire Nathan had started. Raymond had fallen into a deep slumber as soon as the fire began burning, and I wanted to follow his lead.

But instead I sat up, wide awake, staring at the entrance of the atrocious cave that had done me so wrong in the past. All that stood in the way between me and my revenge was Raymond. I could never achieve retribution as long as he was around. He was nothing more than a hinderance to my plan. I needed to ditch him and go settle my business with that monster.

Zevoa's ears perked up. She got out from her comfortable position in front of the fire to stalk over and stare at the entrance with me. She directed her crimson irises at me and we stared into each others eyes for a moment. I scratched her behind the ears. It sounds crazy, but I really feel like she could _understand_ me. Like she could literally feel what I was feeling. Weird, right?

I quickly and quietly packed all of my stuff and headed into the oh-so familiar cave. As I set one foot into the passage, memories began to flood my mind, leaving me shaking and limping as I slowly stepped into the cavern.

I glanced around; expecting to see Jerry's disemboweled body lying in the corner, rotten and swarming with flies. I couldn't keep going, I fell to my knees. My breathing was ragged, I forced the tears from surfacing. "Zevoa, lead the way," I struggled to regain my balance. I followed my pokemon as she stalked through the cave with precision.

We headed deeper and deeper into the depths, and I crossed the bridge quietly, not even paying attention to my fear of heights. I couldn't let it overwhelm me, I had bigger things to worry about. I carefully trudged across the drawbridge, Zevoa's bright yellow eyes were my only light keeping me on track. Without her, I would've probably lost my footing and fell to my doom. If that was the way I would go, I would consider myself lucky.

I finally set foot on solid ground, then looked back to see if I had been followed. Nothing. The void was as black behind me as it was ahead of me. I deemed it safe enough that I could finally turn on my flashlight. I had been keeping it off to prevent any likelihood of Raymond being able to see me.

I speed-walked into the cave, deeper and deeper. Her eyes would probably be unnerving to most people, like a predator stalking them through the dark; waiting for the right moment to pounce on it's prey. But to me, she was a beacon. Zevoa, my pokemon. My first pokemon, it didn't matter if I caught 100 more. She would still be my first pokemon.

"Zevoa, stick close," I motioned for her to come by my side. I pulled out my torch and turned it on; a brilliant white beam erupted out of the object. It illuminated almost everything around me, not leaving a single corner unexposed from the light. I no longer needed the hyena to guide me, since the light did a far better job at it than she did.

I needed a hiding place, somewhere to sleep for the night and not be found sitting in the open by Raymond or the onix. The crevice. The one I used to conceal my location from the onix the last time I was in there. It wasn't too far in, probably about 2 hours away from my current placement.

 _XxXxXxXx_

So far I knew Raymond hadn't found me yet, I was safe. I had found the fracture in the wall, it was the same as how I had left it; barren. I didn't even bother to start a fire to keep warm. It would've made it far easier for Raymond to locate me. I just climbed into my sleeping bag. Soon after that I lost consciousness.

The next day more events would unfold that would leave me broken. It wouldn't surprise me if someone told me that a majority of trainers are inside of institutions; their mental states completely crumbled. It wouldn't have surprised me if you told me that _I_ would become one of those trainers. Curled up in the corner of some random looney bin; strapped up in a straight jacket. Not surprising at all.

 **Hope you enjoyed this chapter, please review, follow and favorite if you enjoyed. Also, as a reply to the review by Ballball9898. I try to make my chapters long, but sometimes I have to cut them off at a certain point so that I can have material for my next chapter. If I had enough material to work off of for one chapter that I could make it 5000 words long, trust me, I would. But thank you for the review anyway, and I'll try to make them a little longer for you :]**


	15. Chapter 16

I woke up sooner than anticipated. It was 5:00am, and I went to sleep at around 12:00am. Raymond was probably still asleep, so I was safe enough to continue onward. I immediately released Zevoa and let her go hunt some food for us. I popped a couple of vitamins, then continued onward through the cave.

As I woke myself up, thoughts began to flush into my mind. I needed to train my new pokemon, but at the same time, I couldn't. I simply didn't have the time. That thing no doubt would be pretty difficult to teach, but it would most likely be very smart too. It was simian after all. In my world monkeys were supposedly one of the smartest groups of animals on the planet.

I had the name part down. I already knew exactly what I'd call it. Makhai. The greek gods of combat. It was fitting seeing as mankey was a fighting type. I got the name from a movie, although I couldn't remember exactly which one it was. The stuck out to me while I was watching it, and it sounded cool whilst still being unique. Perfect name, right?

Hopefully it would be as good in combat as it's name suggests. It would be pretty useful to have such a good pokemon on call during my fight with the onix. Although it would take some time to train him up to par with Zevoa. I grasped his pokeball, wondering just what I would do with it for the time being.

"Zevoa, get over here," I pointed to my side. I wanted her to stay right next to me just in case the little monkey went crazy when I released it. She sat down next to me, and a moment later I tossed the ball onto the cave floor. The mankey appeared with a flash of light, then without taking a breath it shot at me in a fit of rage. Zevoa hopped up and pounced on it in the air. She landed on top of it, pinning it's arms to the ground with her 100 pounds of pure muscle.

It squirmed around, trying with all of it's might to free itself from her grasp. It screamed and screeched terrifying noises. I knelt down to it's level and examined it. It was male, obviously. It was also pretty ugly. Like, hideous. Imagine a monkey with a pig face. It bore its sharp fangs and spat at me venomously. As a matter of fact; I wouldn't be surprised if it _was_ venomous. It would just be another pancake on the plate of weird shit that I'd seen on my journey.

"Zevoa, let it go," I commanded. She looked at me puzzledly, but obeyed my request nevertheless. Once the monkey was freed from her grasp it was on top of me within moments. I couldn't even detect his actions; he moved as nothing more than a blur. He was possibly the fastest pokemon I had seen. He stood victoriously atop of me, jumping up and down screaming with vigor. However his bravado quickly came to a halt when Zevoa tackled him from on top of my chest and sent him back to the ground.

"Thanks, girl," I credited her. He was a monkey, and like I had said before, I knew he would be smart. Maybe not in its current state, seeing as it was seeing red. But if I could calm him down, then it would be relatively easy to teach him commands such as his name.

A lightbulb shined above my head. I had an idea. I sifted through my bag for some tape and rope, I knew I had bought some the last time I went shopping. After retrieving the supplies, I ordered Zevoa to let the monkey go. She did so, and as expected, he immediately attempted to assault me. But I had anticipated that. I grabbed his arm and caught him off guard. I quickly took his other one then twisted him around. I bound his hands up in the tape, restraining his movements to only wiggles of his arms.

My plan was to carry him around with me until he calmed down a little. You might be thinking 'well why not just use a pokeball?' Well, the pokeball limits communication between me and my pokemon. I can't speak to them, they don't know what's happening outside of the ball, and I don't even know what's going on in it. But this way, with him tied to my back, he would constantly be able to communicate with me.

I tied some rope around his neck. I specifically aimed to make a slip-knot so if he decided to run, it would just get tighter around his throat the more he pulled. I grabbed the other end of the rope just as he tried to leap at me. I pulled it downward with all of my strength, slamming him onto the rocky floor. He looked up at me angrily, but I simply nudged him with my foot, forcing him to walk.

It was one of the main reasons why I always kept Zevoa out of her ball. It built bonds between us. She was constantly in my presence, she would kill someone to protect me. I needed partners like that. Partners that would do the same for me that I would do for them. I couldn't just let the mankey run around with us; he would without a doubt try to kill me again. But I could still leave him out so that he could get to know us.

"This is how it'll be until you learn to stop attacking me, Makhai," I told him, but he stayed silent, not even looking back at me. He was still mad as hell, but wasn't showing it. I reached down to touch his head, but he swatted my hand away. That swat left a bruise.

"Alright then, so be it," I sighed. It was a miracle that Jerry wasn't like that. Although Jerry couldn't have killed me even if he wanted to. This thing could. He'd probably crush my skull with a few well placed hits. He was kind of like Zevoa. She could've easily killed me if it weren't for Raymond showing up.

I grabbed a handful of the mankey's fur and yanked it downward. "I told you, calm down. I've got things to do, and I need your help to do them. I'm not giving you a choice," I said deeply, his eyes darted from side to side at the sudden pain. But I kept my hold. He needed to learn who the boss was. I needed to assert myself as alpha male of our pack. Or at least I wanted to be the alpha out of the two of us. Since Zevoa thought that she was the alpha of the pack.

"Zevoa, keep going, we're right behind you," I pointed in front of us, she obeyed and ran ahead. I let go of the monkey's fur, he looked at me with a hateful glare that sent chills up my spine. His red eyes were like that of a demons. He was gonna be difficult, I could already tell.

 _XxXxXxXx_

I was deeper in the cave, 3 hours in. Still no sign of the ranger. I knew he had to be tailing me, but the question was when he would catch up. He had sent the houndoom to track me, no doubt. If he was anything like an actual dog, then had a powerful sense of smell. He was probably the best tracker of all of his pokemon.

Zevoa was acting strangely.

It seemed like the deeper we went, the more anxious and aggressive she got. She started killing literally everything in her site; from the smallest of insects to large pokemon that made me quiver in my boots. She even bit me more than once, I had to wrap myself in several bandages to make the bleeding stop. It was getting out of hand.

She attacked Makhai and tore open his stitches. He was gushing with blood, staining the rocky floor with crimson. He had passed out from the loss of fluids, and I had to re-do them. Pokemon are troopers. If a person had suffered such harsh injuries they probably wouldn't be able to survive.

Her actions had gotten so bad that I had to return her back into her pokeball. This left me and Makhai alone in a dark cave together. Not too safe.

He was getting along fine, but he still was trying to tear me apart every other time I looked at him. Something with such an intense hatred for a person wouldn't just let it go that easily. I tried the same methods I used for Zevoa, but all that got me were bruises. Lots and lots of bruises.

He was smart though, I'd give him that. I had taken a break at one point, so we all sat down to eat. I gave him a water bottle, but then remembered that he probably wouldn't be able to open it. I was about to take it back when I saw him screw off the cap and start drinking the beverage like he had been doing it his whole life. Then, I gave him a granola bar, and he was able to remove the wrapper without breaking even a piece off of the bar. It was crazy to watch an animal behave so human like. Of course, then he would make me retract my praise when he tossed a pile of his own feces at me. Okay, he was smart, but at the end of the day, he's still a monkey.

"Makhai, karate chop," I ordered him, but he was not an obedient pokemon. He simply soccer kicked the geodude into a wall, shattering it into pieces. He then stalked off, growling at something in the dark.

At least I knew he wouldn't run away. It wasn't in his nature. For humans, there was fight or flight. We would pick depending on what the situation called for. I wasn't one-hundred percent sure, but mankey's only had one emotional response to anything; fight. He hated me, but running would mean that he admitted defeat. He had to stick around, as he believed that he would be able to challenge and defeat me one day. I was hoping that by the time I was done with him, killing me would be the last thought at the back of his head.

"Zevoa, come on out." I threw her pokeball onto the ground, it erupted and out came the hostile hyena. She started sniffing around, then began growling at something behind me. I turned around, but saw nothing. Just darkness. I did smell something though. It wasn't the same smell I had encountered last time I was there. It was subtle, but noticeable. Like burning exhaust.

I brushed it off and continued. Whatever it was likely wasn't near strong enough to beat Makhai, Zevoa and I. Most every pokemon in the cave was a can of tomato paste when it came to fighting.

"Makhai, go bully something," I told him. He screamed, making me cover my ears in pain. I saw him sail over my head like he was diving at something. I turned around to see Nathan the houndoom, standing not too far behind me, looking furious as hell at the monkey latched to his horns, beating the of his head in.

The houndoom shook its head around, throwing the mankey off and onto the floor. He then aimed his attention at me, his fangs bleeding with flames. If I had a full bladder I would've pissed myself right then and there.

"Zev-" I was about to tell her to go help out, but she was already on it. She darted over to the hell hound at full throttle and latched onto it's horn with her sharp fangs. It breathed a torrent of flames at the ground; enough to make Zevoa end her assault and leap backwards away from the embers. She and Nathan stood about 15 feet away from each other, standing off with deep and dark growls.

I quickly returned Makhai, he wasn't near strong enough to compete in the fight that was about to take place. He'd get torn apart. The houndoom puffed out a weak fireball at Zevoa, she ducked it and rushed at him. Nathan was prepared this time, though. He breathed a large wave of powerful fire at Zevoa. I tensed up a little bit at the whine she made after the attack landed. The flames died down, leaving Zevoa swaying on her feet but otherwise okay.

I pulled out a water bottle, filled up my mouth and ran full speed at the houndoom, balled-up fist ready to start painting the ground red with blood. It turned around to face me with it's threatening fangs and eyes, but I didn't falter. I spat all of the water into it's face, which successfully distracted it long enough for me to smash my knuckles into its temple, flooring it in one blow.

It looked shocked, as did Zevoa, at my sudden assault. Hell, even I kind was. But it recovered from its astonish and blew a cloud of black smoke into my face, throwing me into a coughing fit. Zevoa was doing no better, as she was pawing at her nose in pain.

The smoke cleared, but the houndoom was nowhere to be found. It was a scout, and was about to go inform Raymond of our location. It would be a problem if he found out about my plan. I had to get out of there.

I returned Zevoa and hurried through the cave. I wouldn't be able to conceal myself; that hound would be able to sniff me out of any hiding place I could possibly be in. I didn't know how I would get away, all I knew was that I would need to get away. Shit. I should've incapacitated the scout so he wouldn't be able to deliver the message. I wasn't thinking that far. If only I could've broken a leg or something.

I jogged through the cave, looking behind every second just to see if the ranger was following me. If it all came down to it, and I had to fight Raymond, I would. I'd take him down before he could touch any of his pokeballs if need be.

I looked over my shoulder, and the distraction caused me to trip over my feet and splashed onto the ground. It wasn't as much ground as it was mud. It wasn't there last time. That would surely be something I would've remembered. But I couldn't dwell on that. I climbed to my feet. I kept walking, although my mobility was greatly limited by the thick terra.

It was suspicious. Raymond was a strong trainer, I wouldn't be surprised if he had ways to completely morph an environment to suit his needs if he so pleased. I dropped Zevoa's pokeball, she exploded out of it with a flash of white light. Her ears perked up, and she remained dead silent. I motioned for her to follow me, and she did so with no objections. She sensed danger. I knew it.

From then on I traversed with caution through the mud. Something could've easily been masking itself right under our feet. I stopped for a moment. I heard something. It was like feet splashing down onto the mud. I whipped around, there was a flashlight beam bouncing up and down. _Shit!_ I thought. That was him. I ran as fast as the terrain would allow me to. Zevoa started growling at something I couldn't detect, she stood in front of me in a protect stance. I shined my flashlight at the muddy floor. Just as my torch contacted the ground, a figure erupted from the mud. The sludge got all over my body and obscured my vision. I wiped my face off with my forearm and clear my sight.

Zevoa was barking in an attempt to intimidate the massive creature, but to no avail. It wasn't attacking us. It was just blocking us from moving with its bulky frame. Before I could give the order, Zevoa was already tearing into it with her sharp teeth and claws. I drew my long blade and rushed the beast, attempting to deal a crippling wound that would keep it from pursuing us any longer. It grabbed Zevoa with its meaty fingers and tossed her away like a ragdoll. It blocked my blade with it's thick arm and retaliated with a mighty swing that blew me away. It would take a lot more than that to get past it.

I took a moment to assess the beast. It was about 6 and a half foot tall frog with giant blue warts covering its body. It's arms were thicker than tree trunks, it's body was like a wall of fat and muscle. An absolutely stunning beast. But I had no time to admire it. I sprinted over to it, and as expected the monster took a wild swing at me. But I ducked it, leaving me a completely unguarded belly to mangle. I took a stab at it, the blade went in all the way to the hilt. The monster roared intensely, I looked up, it looked down at me. A torrent of steaming hot water spilled out of its mouth and pour all over me. I screamed and dove to the ground; splashing about and rolling around in the cool mud trying to alleviate the pain of boiling liquid washing over me.

Zevoa was on the frog's back, ripping open the giant warts on the top of its head. The monster was squealing and trying to pull Zevoa off of its back, but it was futile. I tried to sit up, but if skin couldn't even. It was like a wave of ants flooded my body then proceeded to bite me on every single inch of my skin.

I struggled up, but was met with a doberman with devil horns staring me down, waiting for a reason for me to move just so that it could bite my fucking head off. I took a swing, but it grabbed my arm with its powerful jaws and held it in place. He dragged me back to the ground then crawled atop of me, pinning me beneath him.

"Goddamnit!" I yelled, desperately trying to free myself from the hellhounds grip. Now I knew how Makhai felt when Zevoa was on top of him. He was probably giggling his ass off inside of his pokeball at the moment. I tried to trigger the release mechanism on his pokeball. But no matter how much I smashed my hips against the mud, it simply wouldn't hatch open.

"Finally, I've caught up to you," Raymond said, staring over me with his black eyes and hair. He was a lot more menacing in the dark, I'll tell you that much. I looked over to see Zevoa lying battered, bruised and unconscious. I gulped, waiting for the next thing to come out of Raymond's mouth.

"Now, you're gonna tell me why you ran from me in the middle of the night. And you'd better have a good reason too, because you woke me up at dawn and made me chase you through a damn cave before I even got to drown myself in caffeine."


	16. Chapter 17

I didn't know what the hell to do. I couldn't lie. What would I even say? 'Oh I was out for a stroll for fresh air, y'know, through a damp, still, mold infested cave,' yeah, that wouldn't go over to well. I was in way too much pain to run. And Zevoa wasn't even aware what was going on, she was knocked out-cold.

"Nathan, let him go," the houndoom stepped off of me. It walked to Raymond's side and glared at me as I climbed up to my feet.

"I-I needed to take a walk. I needed to think about some things on my own," I stuttered past the searing pain.

"You decided to do that without even informing me first? Seems fishy," he said disbelievingly. His eyebrows were furrowed like he was in deep thought. He was analyzing every word. Looking for any hole in my speech that he could delve into and uncover the truth.

"I don't need to tell you anything. I like you Raymond, but I've known you for, what? Two months? I'm not obligated to tell you anything," I tried to get him off my back with some offensive arguing. Hopefully, he would back off and we could end it right then, I thought.

"Yes, you are. Whatever you're up to could potentially harm me or someone else. You either tell me or I'll be forced to take action against you. Truth, now," he said forcefully. We were inches away from each other. I was seconds from punching him in the jaw, and it felt as if there were a few threads of humanity holding me back and keeping me from turning into an animal. It would be a fight heavily stacked in his favor, though. He'd probably level me in one hit, to be honest.

"I'm out of here. You either make me talk or you can stop wasting my time," I growled, slowly walking away. He gripped my wrist, and I felt cold steel lock around the joint. He grabbed my other one and did the same thing. By the time I turned my head around to see what he had done, he had me in handcuffs lying on my belly.

I gasped as he rested his boot on my chest and leaned on it with all of his weight. All of that pressure released the oxygen from my lungs and left me breathless. I gazed up and saw his houndoom staring me dead in the eye. It blew a breath of smoke into my face. I took in a breath, my lungs began to fill up with the gas, I uncontrollably started coughing up a storm. Its long black arrow-like tail stroked my cheek, it felt like a blade that could cut me if it applied even a little bit of pressure to it. "What are you doing?"

"I've got a couple of questions. Answer or you're going to jail until you do."

"Go to hell."

"Alright then, don't drop the soap," he hauled me up by my arms against my protest. Shit, prison jokes carried on between universes. Didn't see that coming.

"No, no no, wait!" I begged. Raymond paused, then let go of me, sending me back on the floor followed by a splash. Asshole could've at least set me down gently.

"So you'll answer my questions then?" He asked. Goddamnit, I didn't want to. But I had to. If I didn't then I'd go to jail, but if I did then all of that training would've been for nothing. I couldn't even lie for god sakes, I was terrible at fibbing. I should've never agreed to bring him along with me.

"It depends on the question."

"Answer me this, does what you are doing have anything to do with the trainer that was found dead in this cave a little over a month ago?" Shit, why did he have to ask that? Hopefully, he wouldn't think _I_ did it. The last thing I would want was to be convicted of murder and sent to prison for the rest of my life. Even if I could lie, now I had no choice but to tell the truth.

"I didn't do it," I said instinctively.

"I never said that you did." Shit. I should've thought about it before I said that. It made me sound over-defensive. Like a liar.

"I-I was just walking through, and I stumbled upon the body. It had nothing to do with me, I found him dead."

"Do you have any idea of how he died? What or _who_ might've been responsible for his death?" That damn beast. The one I came here to find and _kill._

"I know what did it." He looked at me expectantly, waiting for me to spill the beans. Within a few seconds, my head had already cycled through all of the flashbacks. I whispered, "an onix."

"A what?" He placed one of his hands to his ear and motioned for me to speak up.

"An onix did it!" I shouted, splashing about inside of the mud. I desperately attempted to free myself from my binds, but it was pointless. I couldn't even find the strength to stand up by myself, let alone break steel handcuffs.

"Calm down, calm down. Is it still here?"

"From what I know," I said with a shaky voice. "I c-came here for revenge. That thing killed not only innocent people, but it killed my pokemon, Jerry," I said more to myself than to him.

"Is it still alive?" He returned his houndoom, then put it's ball back on his belt. He flashed me a look, almost like pity. Maybe it was. Or maybe I was just pitying myself.

I simply nodded, I didn't feel like talking at that point. I had failed. This had all been for nothing. I closed my eyes and tried to separate myself from it all. It was too much for me to handle. I was only 15 or 16. I couldn't even remember. Ever since I got to that goddamn world every day just seemed to pass without me ever seeing the sunrise and set. I shouldn't have even been worrying about this bullshit. It was like this goddamn story was ripped right out of the pages of a fantasy novel or something.

Through all of this I didn't even notice him release another pokemon. Not that I cared anyway. I just felt a sudden burst of cold. Like someone had left the window open or something. Peculiar. I couldn't just brush it off. I cracked open my eyes just a sliver and bore witness to the most horrific creature I could imagine. It looked like something from a Tim Burton movie. It was a _ghost_. It was akin to a little girl that had frozen to death. It had icicles growing from its nose, and large swollen frostbite-stricken arms. It even had a dress. I don't know what the hell type of disgusting human being would've caught a pokemon like that; if it even _was_ a pokemon.

"What the hell is this _thing?"_ I asked. I looked around, but noone was there to answer me. He had skipped while I was distracted with piecing together what the hell that thing was.

 _[F-f-frosslass l-las I am, Brisk I am.]_

"What the hell!" I screamed and covered my ears. It was speaking to me! But it wasn't making noise. It was like there was a second voice in my head. It announced its presence with a ghostly moan. It made a shivering sound as it spoke. It gave me goosebumps.

 _[Still you should stand, M-master R-raymond b-back he shall be. Quiet.]_

"Shut up! Shut up! SHUT UP! I'll do what I want," I screamed. It was such an unnatural thing happening. Stuff like this never _ever_ happens in my world. I got to my feet, but just as I stood up I was shot in the chest by a ball of shadows. The froslass looked down at me with a cold soulless gaze. I forced back a petrified scream and gritted my teeth instead.

In the silence of staring down the frost ghost in front of me, I heard the faintest sound of footsteps. I wanted to brush it off as simply one of the inhabitants of the cave strolling past, but it was different. It was slow and quiet like something was stalking its prey. It didn't want to be heard. The froslass looked at me with confused eyes as my attention drifted to the noise.

It was puzzled, but we both soon figured out what the creature in the darkness was. A loud cracking sound was heard and not a moment later the frost creature spun around. Zevoa leaped out of hiding and pounced on it, pinning it beneath her feet. Flames spouted from her fangs, but she was smacked in the face by one of the froslass' swollen hands.

"Zevoa!" I screamed cheerfully. I wanted to help her, but I couldn't. Not sure if I would even be able to, seeing as it was a ghost type my attacks would probably just pass right through it.

The froslass waved one of its arms and released a ball of shadows that grazed past Zevoa's face and barely fazed her. She growled and flames once more spouted from her incisors. She rushed the froslass but was met with another cold smack that sent her flying. Her concentration broke and she couldn't keep the flames going, they petered out.

It darted at Zevoa in her dazed state and grabbed her with both of its arms, one was on her throat and the other was holding her mouth shut. It laid its frozen blue lips on the mightyena's forehead. Zevoa protested with a plea for her liberation, but alas it was pointless. The froslass was cold and merciless like the winter wind.

A pink wave of energy sailed over Zevoa's body. The hyena looked sickly almost; like she had all of her life-force sapped. In contrast, the froslass immediately looked rejuvenated and full of stamina. It was some sort of draining move. One that Zevoa was particularly vulnerable to.

It dropped the mightyena, and she barely landed on her feet, tripping a few times before gaining her balance back. . "Zevoa!" I screamed, terrified of what the ghost would do next. It took a deep breath and blew a powerful bitter-cold wind at the already severely hurt mightyena. Little shards of ice were formed in the air current, each of them dealt a bit of superficial damage to the mightyena; however, when they were added up they were significantly more harmful.

Zevoa's shiny black coat was now decorated with speckles of white. Little bits of frost had collected, and large shards of ice were sticking out of her body, leaving stains of blood. She was still standing, though. A trooper.

There was an acute difference in weight class between the two pokemon. Zevoa was weaker, actually, she was immensely weaker than her opponent. But Zevoa was a predator, she was naturally gifted in the art of combat. I wasn't too sure about froslass, but last time I checked ghosts weren't hunters. Zevoa even had a good edge in the fact that she had a type advantage. One of the pokemon's main moves doesn't even faze Zevoa.

Her legs shook under her, but she was no longer limited to physically attacking her opponent. I had been working on other types of attacks too. "Dark pulse!" Zevoa opened her mouth and darkness starting being drawn out from her throat and forming into a ball. As the orb grew larger, little purple rings began to form, and not a moment later it was shot like a fastball right into the froslass' chest, winding it and sending it to the muddy ground gasping.

 _[Un-unexpected that was. B-but, not a s-setback.]_ It stood up and dusted itself off, then began levitating ever-so-slightly off of the ground. The ghost appeared in front of Zevoa so fast that I wasn't sure if it was using teleportation or if it was a speed demon. It smacked Zevoa in her face with enough force to send her flying a few feet. I even flinched from the blow. The hyena shook the pain off, then lunged at the ghost as quick as she could.

It blasted a quick ice beam at Zevoa as she was flying through the air, but as soon as it was about to connect Zevoa disappeared and reappeared behind her. The frost pokemon didn't even have time to turn around before it was grabbed by its hair and tossed to the ground. As it laid on it's back, eyes painting a picture of petrified shock, Zevoa crunched down on its face with her razor sharp fangs and monumental jaw strength. The creature let out a ghostly wail as her nose was shattered. I cracked a smile. Served the bitch right. It fell to the floor holding its face with its hands. I ran over to it and soccer kicked it in the chin, knocking it out.

"Good job Zev'," I thanked her, scratching her behind the ears. I was proud of the mightyena for being able to put up such a fight against such a solid adversary. Although I couldn't really dwell on it, seeing as I had to catch up to Raymond before he took what was mine. The death of that damn monster.

Before I did any of that, I'd have to get out of those handcuffs. I knew just how to do it too. "Zevoa, here, look," I jangled the chains of the restraints together, her ears perked up at the noise. She walked around me to inspect what it was. Just what I wanted. "Okay, you want'em? You want'em girl? Get'em then!" I knew she was intrigued, but I think she was just afraid of accidentally hurting me. I reassured her that it was okay, and she went for them. At first, she sniffed them, but eventually she bit them and continued to pull and pull until she broke the cuffs off.

"Thanks again," I returned her back into her pokeball then jogged in the direction Raymond was headed. Her injuries would slow me down, if this was the videogame her health points would be in the red. Not a good thing.

I knew he hadn't gone too far, he had left about 10 or 15 minutes ago. His tracks were still in the mud too. I scanned the floor for my knife, but I figured it was broken from conflict anyway. That's about 15 crown down the drain.

"I can afford another one," I told myself. The silence scared me, especially in the given situation where I was tracking a bloodthirsty murdering monster. I couldn't help the goosebumps. I couldn't shake the image of the froslass' face. It was like something straight out of a horror movie. Whatever, though, at least, I wouldn't have to see it's weird-ass mug again.

 _XxXxXxXx_

"Shit," I whispered, quickly ducking behind a giant rock. The scene playing in front of that boulder was Raymond, foot resting triumphantly on a decapitated onix's head. He was on the phone with someone, the way he was conversing with them I could make out that it must've been a superior to him.

"I found what's been causing all of those deaths. Thanks to this kid that gave me a tip."

"Oh, he's cuffed up, my froslass is watching over him," he informed the mystery person on the other line. Little did he know that his froslass was currently out cold in a pool of mud. I silently beamed with pride.

"I'm on my way to him as we speak. I need to inspect this nest, see if there are anymore bodies. So far I found evidence of 2 corpses, children, but in all likelihood, there are more. Once I'm done with that I'll bring him in for questioning." _Shit_ , I thought. I had to get out of there before he found me. I wasn't down for being locked in a cage and having my head seized for information for a week.

I waited for my opportunity, he bent over to examine something on the ground. All I saw was that it was a dirty white and red color, like a pokeball. I didn't find it necessary to stick around to find out.

I tried to gain as much distance as possible as quiet as I possibly could. I was angry, he killed that monster, even though I really wanted it to die, I felt as though _I_ needed to do it. He didn't know it, but that affected me.

In my world, people die. But usually from old age or heart disease. People don't normally pass so brutally. It would take me awhile to grow accustomed to the normalities of that world. Eventually death would become second-nature to me; both taking life and having it taken from me.

 **Sorry that I haven't updated in a while. Couldn't find what I'd want the next few chapters to be about. Expect semi-regular updates from now on. Please review, follow, favorite if you'd like to see more.**


	17. Chapter 18

I made it out of the cave in one piece. There was no sign that Raymond followed me, but I wasn't eager to stay and find out. I had been walking for hours, but I couldn't risk stopping. I had to keep it up, otherwise, I'd potentially be looking at jail-time. I didn't know the penalty for beating the shit out of a rangers pokemon, but I knew it had to be steep.

It was dark out, but the moonlight made it so that I could still see the path in front of me－that's all I needed. A torch would only serve to give away my location to my pursuer. I lost most of the contents of my backpack during my scuffle in the cave, but, I found it on my way back, chard to bits. That meant that I had no more map, no food, no water, nothing. Damn that houndoom. Good thing I kept all my money in my wallet inside my pocket. At least I could buy some new shit with that cash.

Judging by my surroundings, I was about halfway to the pokemon center. The good thing about walking this damn path is that I knew my way around it like the back of my hand. That didn't make it any less tedious though.

 _XxXxXxXx_

"Damn, finally!" I gasped, bursting through the pokemon center doors dramatically. The nurse gave me an odd look, but she clearly didn't understand. My declaration, no matter how bizarre, was still a true show of my emotions at that point. After walking for hours, I felt as if I wanted to collapse right on the floor where I stood. My legs were aching like they had been repeatedly clubbed by a baseball bat. I pulled out Zevoa's pokeball and limped up to the nurse, uttering something along the lines of 'she needs some attention.' I handed her my trainer card, and after looking it over and determining it was me, she gave it back and deposited the pokeball below her desk.

"Here is your key, sir. You look like you may need some medical attention yourself-"

"No, I'm just tired. Thank you." I took them from her hand and rushed to the steps.

When I made it to my room, I practically kicked down the doors and belly flopped onto the bed. I had been walking for the better part of the almost 24 hours I had been awake. I was exhausted. Usually, a man's finest hour, the most esteemed moment of honor in his life, is the moment when he has worked until his heart ached－when he lies exhausted on the floor, victorious in the game of life. However, I was not victorious. I had failed. There would never be a time where I could fill the hole that the sting of defeat had drilled in all those days ago. My loss was not because of Raymond, his pokemon, or the onix. My failure was because of my poor decisions. The least that I could say is that I'd live up to it.

I may never win in the longrun, I may have been defeated. I may _**never**_ win. But despite that, one thing that I knew was that I wouldn't quit. A man who quits will never have the opportunity to win. I would complete the journey if it was the last thing I did.

My defeat had given me the strength to reach into the depths of my soul and pull out the little bit of power that it took to win the next time.

Those were my final thoughts before I drifted into slumber. That night I slept better than I had for months. That didn't mean I felt better the next day. The least I could say about being an insomniac was that I had felt a sense of superiority to the sleeping world.

 _XxXxXxXx_

It was a brand new day, and I felt just as rejuvenated as ever. I hopped out of bed and entered the bathroom, finished my morning routine and headed out. My legs still ached, but it was nothing that I wasn't already used to feeling everyday anyway. I opened my door and I saw a note attached, it read:

 _Your pokemon is healed up and ready to go! Just come downstairs and you'll be all set._

 _-Nurse Jean_

Perfect. I wouldn't have to wait around for her to get healed., I could just rush right back into the field. I tore the note of the door and shoved it into my pocket, then skipped down the steps.

I walked over to the nurse's counter. Zevoa's pokeball sat atop of it with a sticker affixed that read her name. I was partly surprised that some asshole didn't snatch it.

"Oh, we were waiting for you," a nurse said as she appeared from behind the drapes. "I have some medication in this bag for you, just some pain pills and bandages. I trust that you can apply them yourself, correct?"

"Yeah, I can. I used to be a nurse myself," I bragged.

"But you seem a bit young...?" She questioned with a raised brow.

"Well, it was more of an internship, but I know the basics. I was top of my class," I beamed with my chest puffed out.

"Ah, well, I hope that you reconsider entering the medical field. We could always use more nurses on our staff."

I nodded and smiled, taking the bag from her. I reached for my wallet, but she put her hand up., "No, no, no. Our services are free for registered trainers. The Pokemon League will be paying for this visit."

"Well, that's convenient," I said with a wave. Then, my blood ran cold as I heard what I swore to be the devil's voice. His strong grip was latched on my shoulder, making it impossible to escape. I could already tell who it was without even turning around.

"I was about to say the same thing myself," Raymond smiled emptily. My heart sank as my eyes confirmed who was standing in front of me. "Let's not talk about this out in the open. Meet me outside." He strutted off calmly.

What a way to ruin my day. Just what I needed, to be thrown in jail. I reluctantly followed him as we exited the building.

As soon as we got outdoors, he grabbed my shirt collar and shoved me towards the brick-wall of the pokemon center. "I find it impressive, how you were able to break an elite level pokemon's nose with some nameless mangy vermin of a creature."

"That 'nameless, mangy vermin of a creature' has a name: Zevoa, and she's a mightyena. Also, maybe it wouldn't have happened if you would've simply left a half-decent pokemon to guard us," I hissed. I balled my fist up and clenched my teeth. I was prepared for a fight.

"I could give a damn if she was an arceus," he spat. "I should arrest you for assault. You should be grateful for how forgiving and gracious I am. I know people who would beat you senseless and stain this wall with your blood," I pushed him, and he glared at me but remained silent.

"How forgiving you are? I wish I had the luxury of being able to forgive my enemies. I don't care how gracious you are; the hand that gives should always fear being bitten."

"I picked you up as a stray. I'm the reason you aren't a pile of mightyena shit. Don't you dare bite me." He paused to dust himself off. He picked his ranger hat from the ground and put it back on. his head.

"I'm not a dog, so don't call me a stray."

"You would only be so lucky. A dog knows when to lay down," he grabbed my arm and threw me to the ground. "I'm giving you a chance. I see potential in you, it would be sad to see it go down the drain. For all the ranger force knows, I have you in my custody as we speak."

He offered me a hand to help me up, I was shocked at the gesture, but I smacked it away and climbed up myself. Damn his charity. He could go to hell.

"Like I said. You crushed my froslass in battle. She's one of the strongest pokemon on my team. You've got talent. If I were to press charges against you, you'd be looking at 15 years in the pen," I dusted off my shirt and pants as he continued. "After you got out, you'd have your training license revoked, and your mightyena taken from you. I don't wanna see something like that happen to you."

"You're making it really hard for me to trust you," I mumbled. He sighed and looked down in a show of guilt.

"I know where you're coming from. You think that I'm the bad guy, but I was just doing my job. As soon as that onix killed that young trainer, it became my business to see that it was taken care of," he explained. "What you went through is common amongst trainers. When I was around your age, my ekans was crushed by a graveler. It angered me to lose one of my partners, but as I grew I learned that this is what we signed up for."

 _I never signed up for this_ , I thought.

"Death－be it done _by_ you or done _to_ you－ will become second nature with time," he finished, resting a hand on my shoulder.

"Funny, I remember thinking the same thing." I brushed his hand off of me and turned so that my back was facing him. "I forgive you, but I needed vengeance for him. Jerry was my partner, not yours. This whole ordeal had nothing to do with you. You should've-you should've just minded your own business," I stalked off without another word.

"Wait, wait! There's another way." He ran in front of me and spread his arms, blocking me from my path. "Here." He dug a pokeball out of his pocket. It obviously had suffered much wear and tear, but it was otherwise still functional. "This was that late young man's pokemon. It survived the conflict by being inside of its pokeball at the time it happened."

"So why are you giving it to me?"

"You wanted vengeance, for your pokemon and for the trainer that died. I understand that. But there is another way." He handed the ball to me. "That boy wanted to go to the Pokemon League and become a champion. It's the number one goal of trainers everywhere." He smiled genuinely. It wasn't a grin, or a sarcastic smirk, it was an honest-to-god smile. "He won't be able to make that possible, but you can still make it so that his pokemon will achieve that for him. Take this nidoran, and make that boy's dream come true."

"Didn't he have a family or something to give it to? Was I the only option?"

"The boy, Darek, was an orphan. His way to make a name for himself was to become a champion. Nobody else is gonna take this nidoran. If you don't claim it, it'll probably just rot in some adoption agency or be released back into the wild."

Shit. After saying that he made it really hard for me to decline.

"I battled the boy before he died. I remember this being his strongest pokemon. He had a charmander too. What happened to that?"

"It died fighting the onix. Like I said, the nidoran only survived because it was dormant inside of its pokeball," he told me.

"Well, I'd be an asshole if I didn't take the damn thing. What is its name?" I asked, putting the minimized pokeball in my pocket.

"Solomon." Solomon the nidoran. Solomon the nidorino. Then Solomon the nidoking. That sounded about right.

"Darek would be happy to see his pokemon achieve his dream."

"I'll make him proud."

With that, we parted ways.

 **This chapter was in part edited by AllINoIsImNotAwesome. We will be doing a co-op pokemon fanfic together. Go check her out if you like Fullmetal Alchemist fanfiction. Anyway, review, follow and favorite if you enjoyed and would like to see more.**


	18. Chapter 19

I went to the outskirts of the town, on the route that went into viridian forest. It was the only place left to go, I would be damned if I went back to that cave. This area was refreshing. It beamed with life, from the trees to the birds in the sky. It had succulent green forest, and vividly colored flowers painting the landscape a vibrant hue. Beautiful.

But I didn't come for the scenery, I came to train. I had three pokemon, two of which were in drastic need of it.

When I had fought that trainer, his nidoran was about on par with Zevoa. If his trainer was killed not too long after, that meant that the nidoran was behind about a month and a half worth of practice. But, at the very least, I knew that it knew move commands. That was a place to start.

Before I did any of that, I released Zevoa. She materialized in an aggressive stance, but she chilled out after becoming aware that there was no immediate danger in the vicinity. She appeared fine compared to how she looked the last time I saw her. She limped over to me, and I ordered her to stand by my side. I didn't know how the nidoran would react upon being released, so it was best to just have Zevoa on stand-by.

I tossed the pokeball, the nidoran first seemed puzzled as to the whereabouts of his trainer. He set his sights upon me, and after a moment it clicked in his head who I was. The spikes on his back became erect and were shot high speed towards my face. I ducked just a moment before I became an acupuncture dummy and watched them sail over my head and stick themselves into a tree.

"Zevoa!" She growled deeply and pounced, but her wounds prevented her from even leaving the ground. He shot a flurry of poisonous barbs at the mightyena, but she was still mobile enough to sidestep them. "Scary howl," I exclaimed. They stared each other down, and Zevoa made the first move. She raised her nose into the air and released a menacing bellow. The nidorans eyes widened, and it was scared stiff.

I could hear Zevoa's howl waver, before she stopped in a coughing fit. "Damnit," I growled, knowing why she stopped. Her lungs were too weak from the onslaught of cold attacks brought down by that froslass. "Get out here Makhai," I chucked his pokeball directly into the nidorans face, smashing his snout and elicited a painful screech. I cringed at the noise. Well, I didn't hear anything shatter, so I knew it wasn't broken at least.

Makhai came out in a frenzy, he thrashed at the nidorans face with uncoordinated scratches and kicks. The pokemon was forced to take the beating head-on, he wasn't half as effective in close-quarters combat as it was long range. Makhai grabbed the nidorans horn and hurled him over his shoulder and into a thick oak tree. The nidoran landed in a slump, but quickly recovered and shot a barrage of spikes towards the mankey. He foolishly thought he could take the attack, and was defeated because of that mistake.

The nidoran stared me down. I gulped, the nidoran darted in my direction, horn pointed directly at me. He leapt and just when I thought I would be impaled through the skull by the purple mouse, he froze. Mid-air, he was suspended as if there were little strings attached to him, keeping it from falling. In my state of disbelief, I looked around to see who the culprit was. She stepped out of the bushes, a tall woman with a green hoodie on. Her skin was a caramel brown, and her hair was cut short to her shoulders. She grinned with a certain sparkle in her hazel eyes. "Hey, Floyd."

"I owe you one Terry," she strolled over, and the little pink otter on her shoulder levitated to the ground. Blue waves of energy were radiating from its head, and its irises glowed a vivid sapphire. Her slowpoke seemed a tad bit larger. It looked to be about four-feet from head to foot and had grown far fattier in the months that I hadn't seen it. It kind of made me wonder how she even carried the thing.

"I'll put it on your tab," she waved her hand, motioning for the slowpoke to let go. She nodded and released Solomon from her psychic grasp. The nidoran fell to the ground and passed out. Poison was weak to psychic, so the hold that the slowpoke had on him probably wore him down in and of itself.

"What brings you my way?" I asked, walking over to Zevoa, whom was too distracted by licking her wounds. I'd have to tend to those later. I withdrew her for now; it would be rude to do that while Terry was trying to speak to me.

"Going back to Pallet, I just beat the dark Gym Leader and the Pewter leader," she showed off her three badges. "And my wallet is thicker than a phonebook!"

"Even more of a reason to rob you," she laughed, but cautiously grabbed her purse. "I haven't been so lucky…" I trailed off.

"Tell me about it later, I'm not in the mood to hear your 'Trainer Woes..'" She feigned a yawn of boredom. "Which way you going?"

"Nowhere, just sticking around here to train this little bastard," I pointed to Solomon, "and that one," nodding at Makhai.

"You've got quite the handful," she chuckled then took a seat on the grass. I knelt down and sat Indian-style across from her. She opened her purse and pulled out some sandwiches neatly encased with saran wrap. She offered me one, at first, I declined, but after feeling my stomach growl and my mouth beginning to salivate, I quickly accepted the much needed nourishment.

We ate in silence, with her flipping through her phone－or atleast thats what I thought it was. It was reddish, with a black line going horizontally across it; splitting the object into two sections. I felt compelled to ask what it was, but that might sound suspicious.

"You said something about a dark gym leader, where was he at again?" I asked conversationally.

"He's really deep in the cave. It took me a month to find him. He's at the opposite entrance," she informed. Shit. If I would've known that at the time I would've tried to challenge him when I had the chance. Just my goddamn luck.

"I originally went in there to find _you_ , but you were nowhere to be found. I figured you were dead."

"I had left to go train on the outside, I was getting tired of seeing the same dark cave for weeks," I fibbed. She nodded in understanding.

"I feel you," she put the now empty saran wrap back into her purse and let out a loud unfeminine burp.

"Excuse you," I got up and stretched out, my legs had cramped up from sitting for so long. I guess I just wasn't used to it.

"Is this where we part ways, or…" she said, not really wanting to separate just yet. "Because I was wondering－"

"You can stick around if you want, I'm just gonna train here. Maybe you could help me with these two," I said, pointing to my unruly pokemon. She nodded and smiled, then released the now behemoth that was Bailey. I fell back in utter amazement, he was huge. He could stare me in the eyes without having to look up. His fur was a fiery orange decorated with coal black stripes. His paws were almost the size of my head. He released a roar that made me shake in my boots.

"H-hi, Bailey," I reached out to pet the monstrous canine. I touched the top of his head and noticed that he was warm. Not regular warm, I mean he was like a space heater. His fire was probably vastly more powerful than it was the last time I saw him. He licked his humongous tongue across my face, coating me in thick dog slobber.

"You'll get used to it," Terry cackled. "Why don't you let him and uh, Zevoa, get re-acquainted?" She proposed.

If he and Zevoa were to battle now, she'd get absolutely trounced. He was about twice her weight and twice her height, he breathed fire, and he was way more terrifying than she was by a long-shot. I took out her pokeball and tossed it on the grass, I was just being paranoid, he wouldn't attack her.

She saw him and cautiously stalked over to him. His tail began wagging and before I knew it he was on top of her; glazing her too with dog saliva. She growled and grabbed his tongue in anger, inducing an ear piercing yowl. He leapt away, hiding behind Terry for protection. Zevoa growled and stalked off into the wilderness, clearly livid at the arcanine's display of affection.

Makhai was just waking up from the poison, and was too busy picking poisonous thorns from his chest to care about the sudden appearance of the arcanine. I glided over to him, and commenced helping him out with his problem; if only so that I wouldn't have to interact with that arcanine anymore. I didn't plan on becoming a chew toy for godsakes.

"You need to dodge more often, that could've killed you," I nagged. The mankey growled and snarled something unintelligible, and smacked me in the face. "Ow! What was that for?" He cackled, and mimicked what I said, except he couldn't actually form the words. Little bastard. "How about you go practice on that big guy over there," I whispered. Makhai grinned and got up and went to fulfill his desire to annoy the hell out of the arcanine. "Wait," I put a hand on his little torso, stopping him in his tracks. He glared at me impatiently, I wanted him to go, but I needed to tell Terry what was about to happen.

"Terry, can I use Bailey as a practice dummy?"

Her eyebrows rose, she closed her phone and deposited it back into her purse. "What for?"

"Just as a mock-battle for Makhai," I yelled, seeing as she was far away and Makhai kept poking and prodding at me to hurry up.

"Sure, he'll go easy."

"Get going!" I pointed at the arcanine. His ears perked up and before he knew what was going on, the mankey was latched to his face, punching and kicking until the arcanine had enough. The noise of flames crackling sounded and the mankey hopped off his face, his feet smoking. Bailey used that technique in my battle with Terry before, where he superheated the surface of his skin to protect against melee attacks. Very clever.

The mankey recovered and sprinted once more at the arcanine. This time, it was stopped right in its tracks by a weak but quick stream of fire. "Dodge!" Makhai scoffed and easily evaded the attack with a front flip. He landed in a crouch, then tucked and rolled as Bailey puffed out more flames. He stood back up and ran until he was under the arcanine's belly and did a powerful uppercut, sending the arcanine to the floor with a loud thump. Makhai hopped onto the arcanine while he was on his side, and jumped up and down, screaming fiercely.

"Get serious, Bailey," Terry said nonchalantly. Makhai leapt off just as Bailey rolled over back onto his paws and stared down the mankey. His eyes got much more intense, he crouched down and showed all of his many fangs. Makhai was unfazed. He released a powerful wave of flames that scorched some of the fur off the mankey. It didn't knock him out, but it did burn off some of his creamy white coat. I bet it hurt like a bitch though.

The mankey screamed at the top of his lungs. His irises became red, and the veins in his muscles began to show. He was pissed. It was like something in his brain just said fuck it and Makhai went berzerk. He leapt at the arcanine, scratching at his eyes, pulling on his ears, and kicking his throat until he submitted and revealed his belly. The mankey shrieked something akin to a cry of victory, and pounded on his chest similar to a gorilla.

"Drama queen…" I mumbled, returning the mankey. Terry giggled at his odd show, but then scolded her arcanine. I heard her say something along the lines of 'Toughen up you big baby, he's like the size of one of your balls,' either way, it didn't really concern me.

I sighed, knowing that the ape would need more work. Anger management classes at least. Well, it was progress in and of itself that he wasn't actively trying to tear my head off.

I noticed he nidorans eyes were open, but he still looked dazed. "Solomon," I called to him. Immediately his fur stood on end, ready for an attack. "Wait!" I threw my hands up, he halted but still looked suspicious of my intentions. "Sorry about us attacking you, but it was self-defense, just calm down and we can talk about this," I slowly stepped forward and sat on one knee about a foot away from him. His spikes went back to being flat on his back.

Terry; who was previously standing to the side with a watchful eye, stepped forward and offered her assistance. "Betsy may be able to translate for you," she pointed to her slowpoke, who was idly sunbathing in a patch of flowers. I nodded in support of the notion, although I wasn't too sure if Solomon would be keen on the idea. Either way, he needed to know that we meant him no harm. I couldn't train a pokemon that wanted to kill me.

"Betsy, get over here." The pink otter moseyed over to us and laid down with a yawn. She looked up at her trainer for orders, Terry told her what she wanted her to do, and the slowpoke began to communicate without protest.

 _[Make it quick, I didn't get a full sleep last night.]_ Betsy said with a deep but feminine voice. I gripped my head, still not used to the feeling of a psychic messing around in my head. Even if the slowpoke had good intentions. _[What's the matter?]_

"Nothing, it just feels odd is all," I waved her off.

The slowpoke sniffed at the air, and answered with, _[You smell of a ghost, a cold one. Is that the source of your unease?]_ She yawned, knowing that she solved the problem. I suddenly felt her existence lifted from my mind. Instead, she turned her attention towards the nidoran, who flinched at the sudden presence in his brain.

Solomon started itching at his head, growling and hissing at the same time. His thorn became involuntarily erect, but he made no effort to use them offensively. All of a sudden, it stopped. Solomon fell limp onto the ground, a blank look on his face. At first, I thought he had fainted. But he got up, legs shaking, ears pinned to the back of his head. He stalked off, before settling on some grass and staring into the woods.

"What's his deal?"

 _[Everyone copes with death differently,]_ she whispered. Oh no. It was the death of his trainer. I hadn't even thought of how the news would affect him. Raymond never informed him? He put all that pressure onto _me_ of all people? I was starting to like him less and less.

"Oh," I sauntered over to the nidoran, not bothering to announce my presence. I sat down next to him, placing my hand on his head. I noticed out of the corner of my eye that the slowpoke had joined us, but I paid it no mind. "I'm sorry about your trainer." He looked up, but maintained a dead look. "I know what it feels like to lose a friend. I don't know if you know this, but that sandshrew that I used to battle you? He died around the same time your trainer did." The nidoran turned to the slowpoke, and they looked into each other's eyes for a moment before he jumped in shock.

 _[He told me that you don't have to apologize, and that he is sorry for your loss.]_ I smiled, taking my hand off him.

"I chose to look after you. Well, not exactly, but I agreed to it. Your trainer wanted to go to the pokemon league, and seeing as you are sort of an extension of him, it would only be right for me to give you the opportunity to accomplish that in his absence," I said. He looked up at me, but not out of disdain. I couldn't quite place it, but it was kind of like...acceptance?

He turned to Betsy, after a few moments of low-pitched noises that my ears could barely pick up; the slowpoke spoke up. _[He'd like to be alone.]_

Without another word, I got up and walked away. I felt like we were taking the first step towards being an _actual_ team. Progress.

 _XxXxXxXx_

I had bandaged up Zevoa, sustaining enough bites that _I_ was the one in need of medical attention. I got payback in the form of Makhai chipping one of her teeth with a well-placed kick while she was distracted. This led to an epic 30 minute chase up and down the trail we were heading up.

Oh, and Terry and I decided to travel together. I said it was because I had bad memories of being in Viridian forest, but in reality it was because being able to telepathically translate what my pokemon were saying was unbelievably convenient. So what I was using her for my own gain, sue me.

Although the one I really wanted to talk to-Zevoa-was unable to talk to me. The slowpoke said that her psychic powers weren't strong enough to be able to read a dark pokemon's mind. And Makhai wasn't exactly too keen on something invading his mind, couldn't say that I disagreed. He went on a temper tantrum when we tried it, which was only solved by knocking him out cold.

"Tell me about what happened in the cave," Terry said seriously.

"Wait, what?"

"I want to know what happened in there. I read about it on the paper," she went on. It took me by surprise how she suddenly brought up the subject. Had it really been in the paper? Wow, the first time I was in the news was because I had been nearly killed by a giant rock snake. If only I had gotten killed, then maybe it would've been the headline.

"What did the paper tell you?"

"That you were some kid lost in a cave, and by some miracle you came across a ranger who rescued you from sure death by a big, evil, man-eating onix," she told. That son of a bitch. He knew he was wrong for saying something like that, didn't he?

"Pfft, yeah right. Raymond is an asshole."

"I was guessing that it wasn't the complete truth. Rangers have always done shit like that," she said venomously. Did she have some beef with Raymond? Or maybe it was with rangers in general?

"No, Raymond is a nice guy. But I was not 'rescued' by him. Next time I see him he's gonna have some real explaining to do."

"I'd say beat the crap out of him. Have Zevoa tear him a new one," she smirked, seemingly liking the idea.

"What's your deal with rangers?" I asked. She stopped walking, glaring daggers at me.

"Educate yourself," Terry spat. She jogged ahead. That was weird. Had I hit a soft spot?

I called Zevoa over, focusing on her instead of the odd display Terry had put on. Makhai had followed her, but seeing as she was no longer chasing him, he turned his attention elsewhere.

After a while, Makhai no longer wanted to tear my head off. He was still very dangerous, but he wasn't an immediate threat to my life. He warmed up to me, I was guessing because I provided him with treats and playmates. Either way, it worked out for me in the long run.

Solomon was the real problem. He demanded that he'd be confined in his pokeball until he wanted to come out. He stopped attacking me, but he still didn't get along well with any other pokemon besides the slowpoke. He outright hated Zevoa, every time I released him, within a few seconds they'd be at each other's throats. He wasn't doing any better with Makhai either.

I had quite the handful with this team, I'll tell you that much.

 **Please review, favorite, and follow this chapter if you want to see more. What are your criticisms? What would you like to see changed? Review with your opinions.**


	19. Chapter 20

"Like this, Makhai!" I was teaching him some basic punches and kicks, which seemed to be working. He picked things up quickly, he started applying those techniques in just about every fight he got into. Namely against Zevoa. I think that he figured out that she had a weakness to fighting attacks and decided to be as annoying as possible with the newly-found knowledge. I wouldn't have blamed her if she mauled him.

It was Terry's turn to find food, so I had our campsite all to myself. It was nice. We were pretty deep in the forest; there was no path, and neither of us had a map to know where we were going. Still infinitely better than that damn cave.

Frankly, though, she was a far worse hunter. Her damn arcanine would bark every time he spotted their prey, which scared it off every time. The slowpoke was quiet; but far too slow. She couldn't really use her telekinesis on a moving target, either. They were nothing like Zevoa, who would stick to the shadows and slither between hiding places stealthily. Sometimes she would be just inches away from her target before it even noticed her presence.

Eventually, she came back with a fat pidgey in her hand, and a wide grin on her face. "Got it by surprise, beat that with your little rattatas or whatever," she bragged. It was true that I had mostly only caught rodents, but I was damn good at it.

"The raichu was like twice that things size," I scoffed. Zevoa and Makhai teamed up and nearly took down a raichu, but it paralyzed Zevoa and thunderbolted Makhai into submission. It was pretty pathetic.

"But it beat the crap out of your pokemon and I haven't seen it since; I went to sleep hungry that night," she hissed. I backed down, not wanting to scuffle with such a dominating person.

"Whatever, just cook the dumb pidgey…" I stalked off. Makhai followed, throwing balls of mud at the girl, eliciting a high-pitched scream. I snickered, I'd have to give him a treat for that later.

I didn't know exactly where I was going, but it didn't really matter. It took an hour to cook meat over an open flame, and honestly; I didn't feel like sitting around in the meantime.

Makhai was backflipping and swinging off branches, not really a reliable forest guide. Zevoa was native to this stretch of wilderness, it would be best if she were to lead me. I returned him and I let out the mightyena. She lead me to an easier to traverse path, and I thanked her for that. I still had to fight through thick amounts of vegetation, but it didn't bother me.

Maybe with some alone time, I could start to work on team development? I tossed Solomons pokeball on the ground, releasing him with a flash of light. He hissed, his pines becoming erect at the sight of Zevoa. I stepped in between them, "Solomon, quit it." I grabbed his ear, stopping him in his tracks. "Like it or not, you're a member of this team now, and you will act as such." He glanced away, looking into the distance.

I let him go foolishly and not a moment later he stung me in the shin with his horn. I cursed and fought back the urge to punt him into a ditch. Zevoa growled, the nidoran met her eye and hissed in response. And to think; I thought Makhai was unruly.

Solomon walked ahead of us, not even sparing a glance in my direction. He continued walking onwards despite my protest. I cursed under my breath and chased after him, Zevoa in tow.

"Goddamnit Solomon! Zevoa, do something!" She looked at me, but just continued running beside me. Ashes Pikachu would've done something.

We caught up with him, he was at the bottom of a tree eating mushrooms. I sighed a breath of relief. Nothing bad happened to him. I strode over to him and gathered a few of them and stuffed them into my bag for later use. After having a diet made up of almost purely meats, this would be a welcome change for my taste buds.

There were dozens of them, about as big as my hand, covering the tree. I didn't even have enough room in my bag for all of them. My thought process was if an animal could eat it, I could. I munched on a couple on the way back to camp. The food should be almost done, we could have these as a side.

They had sort of a sweet taste. I hadn't had any variation in my palate. I bought a cake about a month ago, but that was the last time. Frankly, rat and bird meat started to wear on you after a while.

I could smell something. Something sweet. It smelled like hot coffee. I gazed down at my arm, goosebumps ran up and down it. I could go for some coffee. I glided towards the pleasant and homey scent. It was almost like I could see the air, a deep cocoa brown accented with little sparkles. I couldn't wait.

I glided in the direction of the scent, my two pokemon following in suit. I would sometimes stumble, but Zevoa would always be there to help me gain my balance.

"Zevoa, go track it," I slurred. The mightyena looked at me sideways. She jumped up and licked my face. She never did that before. Whatever, crazy dog.

Zevoa whined at me, pawing at my leg whenever I had stopped, what had gotten into her? Even Solomon kept looking in my direction, looking like he was worried about me.

Forget about them, the scent was the problem. Every time I'd think I was getting closer, it would seem to get farther away. It didn't help that Zevoa wouldn't help me track it. Stupid dog-cat-hyena, thing.

The forest seemed to be trying to keep me from the scent. Stupid trees. I'd jump over a dead one, and smash against a living one. _Ouch! That hurt!_ I hissed. I clutched my nose in my hand. Was it broken? Curse that tree. I took my hand away from my face. It was coated with blood. Who did that? Did I hit someone?

No. That was Jerry's blood. I looked down to see him cradled in my arms. No no no. It was that _thing,_ that onix. "Jerry!" I cried. I dropped him and started digging a hole with my bare hands. It was time for a proper burial. I could come visit him this way. I'd put a cross or something right there and visit him every day. I laid him down in the hole. I tossed the dirt onto his limp body.

Zevoa was frantically whining at me. She kept licking my face, over and over. I was coated in her saliva. Didn't she know that this wasn't the time for that? I was trying to mourn my friend. What was her problem? No. She wouldn't do that. _Something is up,_ I thought.

"C'mon. We'll go back to camp," I garbled. "The food should be done…" I tripped, falling on my face. I had passed out for a moment. I had a fierce headache. A little purple rabbit-thing was following me around. What was it? Was it mine? I remembered it stinging me before. It even hurt Zevoa once. No. That was an enemy. I soccer kicked the thing but went off balance and fell flat on my ass. It looked at me, perplexed. I swung at it, but my hand hit a hard rock. I swore and gripped my fingers, I couldn't move them anymore. Damn that thing.

It sniffed me up and down, then opened up my backpack. It had dropped on the ground when I fell. That thing was eating everything inside. It was eating all of my mushrooms! No, that was my dinner for the night. "Stop it!" I yelled, flailing my arms around. I dug out one of my pokeballs. Makhai. He could help me. I tossed the ball. A bright white light erupted from it, I covered my eyes. My head was excruciatingly painful. The light dimmed, leaving a cute little monkey in its wake. I remembered Makhai fighting the purple thing. He fought for me. He had to be my friend. "Makhai, get it…" I slurred.

He looked at the nidoran then looked at me, bewildered. "I said attack it, you stupid!" I yelled at him. He cautiously strode over to me. He smacked me. "Ow!" It tricked me. That thing was an enemy, he just hit me! I had to get out of there before they ganged up on me and killed me. I climbed to my feet and ran (stumbled) away from them. Zevoa was beside me, weaving through the trees with expert-level precision. The mankey followed, swinging off of vines and gliding through the brush with ease. The nidoran was bouncing around just as easily. I, on the other hand, was crashing into trees left and right.

It was as if the trees were alive. They were trying to get me. I looked up into the canopy. It wasn't a canopy. It was a head. An onix head, glaring down at me with its giant deep black eyes. It roared, and I trembled in my shoes. I sprinted faster than I could imagine, but every other step it swung its tail at me. My face and chest stung terribly, but I pushed past the pain and kept running.

I stumbled upon a house. Someone in there could help me, maybe some old lady. I entered, not even bothering to knock. All three of my pokemon froze, staring at me from outside. Even the onix stopped moving. I sat down on the floor and leaned against one of the bright yellow walls. I marveled at how large the house was, and the beautiful orange and yellow hues it was decorated with.

I attempted to stand up, but my back was stuck to the wall. I pulled and pulled, and finally I snapped off and fell on my face with a crashing sound. I started hearing a buzzing sound, wondering if I had just gotten a concussion. I rubbed my temples, my sight blurring. I gazed up the hallway just as a swarm of giant _wasps_ came around the corner, heading right at me. I sprang up and dashed out of the door. The three pokemon were still standing there anxiously. As I flew past them, they all caught sight of what I was running from and followed me at top speed.

The onix had left, I couldn't even see its tracks. Good riddance. Why did these creatures hate me so much? What had I done to deserve to be chased through the wilderness by a swarm of wasps?

 _I know!_ I came to the realization like a lightbulb appeared above my head. I had eaten the mushrooms, and the mushrooms belonged to the forest, so the wasps were trying to protect the forest and keep me from eating any more mushrooms!

I stopped abruptly, and all the bugs flew right past me. "Hey, I'm sorry for eating your mushrooms! I promise I won't do it again!" I apologized, but they turned around and kept pursuing me. I ran straight through their swarm in the same direction they came from. I received slashed and cuts across my entire body, and I was seeping a purple fluid.

My arms became limp completely, and my breathing staggered. _They're gonna kill me_. "Forgive me forest guardian-" A stream of flames flew right over my head, setting fire to the crowd of insects.

"Bailey, flamethrower!" A young girl ordered her dog. Explosions of fire burned dozens of them at once, lighting all of our surroundings with brilliant inferno.

"Your dog is on fire!" I screamed in panic. She looked at me questionably, but as her mouth opened to respond she was slashed by a speeding wasp. She screamed in pain as blood gushed out of her arm, she screamed something at her dog and the wasps chard remains dropped to the ground.

The nidoran was shooting needles at the wasps with pinpoint accuracy, but he was becoming overrun with the insects. The mightyena wasn't anywhere to be found. The mankey was bashing their heads in. He looked tired, but he was still combatting them furiously. The only one who wasn't struggling was the dog, it seemed as if every time one of them got close there was a bright flame and all of the surrounding bugs were burnt to a crisp.

I was waving my arms around to beat back the wasps. "Hey, I think it's because I took their mushrooms!"

The girl bit back a pained hiss to look at me like I was an idiot and say, "What the hell are you talking about? I saw you walk into their hive!" She yelled at me, stomping a bug that got too close to her into the dirt.

"I-I…" I couldn't finish my sentence. I felt so weak. My arms were gushing with so much blood. I could barely feel them. I stumbled and fell, feeling sleepy. The last seen that I remembered before passing out was a storm of flames dancing all around us, and a sudden rise of temperature. Then I blacked out.

 _XxXxXxXx_

 _A little dog skipped up to me. I greeted it with a scratch behind its ears. I looked around, scanning my environment. A small apartment, a futon in front of the old box-shaped television set sat on top of a dingy brown carpet. I grew up in this apartment. I gazed at the wooden door as it slammed open. My father walked in sluggishly, he had just got off work. He smiled upon seeing me and greeted me with a smile and a strong working mans hand on my shoulder._

 _My foster father. He was the only parental figure I knew. An honest man. He owned a retail outlet on our street, and he made a modest amount of cash from that. It was enough to afford my internship at the hospital, where I was planning on becoming a surgeon._

 _He asked me if I was off to work. I tilted my head, forgetting about my job. I hadn't worked in so long. I was a trainer now. Or was I? Was I just dreaming? No, it was real._ This _was the dream._

 _I told him about it. How I was a trainer. He laughed hardily, showing his poorly taken care of teeth. I smiled at him. He had a certain charm about himself. Between his pot belly, his bad hygeine, his spanish accent and his general fatherly air, he drew you in with his look alone._

 _He said that I was hysterical. He said that I played too many video games. I laughed, agreeing with him. I did have a penchant for doing that. He put a hand on my shoulder, telling me that if that was what made me happy, there was nothing wrong._

 _My father was full of advice. He was a wise man, he had so many experiences to draw from that it seemed like he was never wrong. I hugged him. A tear slipped down my cheek. Despite how different we looked, he raised me._

 _More so than that, he was the only familiar face I had seen in months. Forget about Raymond, or Terry. This was my dad. Ever since my foster mother died he was my only support. I had friends, sure, but they were nothing compared to him._

 _The apartment flashed black, then began to slowly disappear. My father no longer stood in front of me. Just blackness. Suddenly, a bright light crept over the entire apartment._

 _XxXxXxXx_

I jolted awake. My heart rate slowed, remembering where I was. I was at my apartment, in my bed. Except I wasn't. I was on the cold hard ground, my arm in a sling. One of my fingers had a splint on it. My whole body was sore, and my head felt like someone bashed it in with a railroad hammer. My tongue was toying with my chipped tooth. _Wait, where the hell did I get all of this from?_

I got up from my cot on the dirt and crawled out of my tent. It was dawn; or dusk. How long had I been asleep? Two silhouettes sat in front of a fire, one of their ears perked up and it skipped over to me. The other one, I recognized to be Terry. She smiled tiredly, taking a sip of what appeared to be coffee.

"What time is it?" I asked groggily, scratching Zevoa's head. The dimly lit surroundings made me drowsy despite having just woken up.

"Do you see a watch on my wrist?" She smiled. "It's sunrise. You've been out for awhile," she answered.

"Why, though?" I racked my brain to see if I recalled any of the events before I became unconscious. Nothing came up.

She examined me, eyes inspecting my injuries. "You ate some poisonous mushrooms."

"Oh, so did these mushrooms gang up and break my arm?" I asked sarcastically.

"No, you did that. I'm guessing while you were tripping, you actually _tripped_ a few times," she scoffed. I realized what she was talking about. I had picked some mushrooms. But they hadn't been poisonous, had they?

"That couldn't be it. Solomon had been eating them, and they weren't brightly colored or anything," I tried to reassure myself. Terry looked at me like I had grown a second head.

"Are you an idiot? Solomon is a _poison_ type. Poison-types can't be poisoned!" She shouted.

"How was I supposed to know, huh?"

"It's common knowledge! Poison can't be poisoned, fire can't be burned, ice can't be frozen," she listed off with an attitude in her voice. Well, in hindsight, I could've been a _little_ bit wiser about eating random things in the jungle.

"Okay, okay. Are any of my pokemon hurt?" I wondered.

"Your mankey was poisoned, but he should recover. Zevoa wasn't hurt that bad, but their bug attacks got to her. Solomon was nearly killed trying to defend you," she then pointed at me. "You, however, were severely poisoned, have huge gashes on your arms, you broke a finger, chipped a tooth-"

"I noticed," I growled.

"Hey, it's not my fault that you lack common sense and reasoning," she smirked.

I mocked nagging tone, earning a glare and a rock thrown my way. It bounced off of my head, at that point I could _feel_ my brain cell dying. I then remembered what she had just said. "Solomon tried to save me?" I plopped down in front of the fire. Terry went back to her place on the other side, snuggled up with her blanket and warm drink.

"Well, not necessarily, he just so happened to be in front of you when a beedrill divebombed your collapsed body," she explained.

"Oh, well, he went through with it at least."

"No, actually he tried to get away but it chased _him_ instead."

I sighed and leaned into the fire. I had a sliver of hope that he had actually cared about me as his trainer. "So, basically my pokemon lost all respect for me, I have an odd number of fingers and the smile of a boxing champion?"

"Pretty much," she got up and walked back to her tent, patting me on the back along the way. Well, at the end of the day, I was still breathing.

 **Filler chapter, I know. But please review, favorite, follow if you enjoyed.**


	20. Chapter 21

**Hope you enjoy, if you do, follow/favorite/review.**

2 days later, I was enjoying a roasted pidgey with mushrooms(not the poisonous kind) and some oddish. I found out that this entire time I'd been stumbling upon them, but they masked themselves so well into their environment that I thought they were regular plants. Turns out, they were actually little onion like things that were virtually harmless, and they tasted so good.

"Are you enjoying your mushrooms?" Terry grinned past her chewing, I glared daggers at her. She would never stop rubbing it in my face, even 2 days later, and she was still patronizing.

"Eh, not as good as the last ones."

"Well maybe you could sniff some oddish spores to get the same effect," she snarked. I simply ignored her that time, not able to think of a good comeback.

"So, what're you gonna do when we get to Viridian?" She changed the subject, sensing that I would just stop responding to her insults.

"Eh, I don't know. Maybe get my first badge?" I wondered. I hadn't really thought of it that far, I was kind of just going with the wind.

"I don't know, it's up to you. I'd say you have a pretty good shot at the gym down there, Zevoa is pretty damn strong, and your other two can handle themselves decently in a fight," she said. Sure, Zevoa _was_ strong, but she wasn't _that_ strong. Her training started to slow once she became stronger than the wild pokemon in the area. Viridian had some strong pokemon, but most of them couldn't keep up with her one on one.

"Isn't he a ground type gym leader? My second strongest pokemon is weak against ground types, it wouldn't be a good idea to challenge him with that handicap, would it?"

"Well, he might evolve soon. I'm no expert, but you nidoran aren't usually that big from the jump," she pointed to Solomon. He was pretty big, but it wasn't like I had any other nidoran to compare him to. "And he has a _lot_ of quills, and he can replenish them pretty quickly. If he can become a nidorino, then I'm pretty sure he'd be on-par with the leader."

"You think?"

"Most definitely, between those three, you'd do a better job than I did."

"I mean, your best pokemon is weak to ground types, and your other one is so slow it can't even properly use its advantage," I pointed at her slowpoke. It's eyes widened at the insult and it shot a water gun right at my face. Then, Terry smacked me on the back of my head while I was distracted. "That was uncalled for, one of you do something!" I yelled at my pokemon, they all looked at me for a moment, then continued doing whatever they were doing.

"Traitors…" I mumbled, chucking a bone at Zevoa. She caught it and crunched it in half.

"So, anyway, are you gonna train the nidoran or you wanna just challenge the leader as you are?" She asked.

"Probably train, but I just need to figure out how to get him to obey me. I know that he knows the commands though, at least," I murmured.

"Betsy told me about him, and how you found him. It's sad, really."

My eyes widened for a moment, forgetting that the slowpoke was a psychic. She told all about our conversation."Y-yeah, it is. I saw his body. I almost threw up." And I nearly threw up at the memory.

"If-" she stopped for a moment, gathering her thoughts. "If those rangers did their jobs, things like that wouldn't happen. Your sandshrew would be alive, that trainer would be, and the trainer before that would be too," she growled. "There needs to be some changes to Kanto."

"I mean, what can you do? It's just how things are; the sky is blue, grass is green, and the government is full of idiots," I sighed. I, in part, was also referring to the government in my world. I guess dumb politicians were universal?

"It's how things are, but that doesn't mean that's how things always have to be."

"But, what would _you_ do about it? We can talk about it all day, lots of people do, but nothing short of a _coup_ could change things," I said. She shook her head in denial, like she didn't want to believe what I said was true.

"I mean, we could elect new officials, input stricter training regulations, make bigger patrols-"

" _We_ won't do anything. No one will, I know it," I said. I sounded incredibly negative, but It was true. If my world was anything to go by, then no one would have the balls to do it.

"Whatever," she snapped, stalking off. Dammit, was I too harsh? I mean, it was true. I was just being honest, nothing would change. I shouted for her to stop, but she kept going, angrily storming into the woods. I could no longer see her past the foliage, all I heard was a frustrated growl and cracking noise, then I knew I fucked up.

I sighed and jumped to my feet. I called my three pokemon over to me, but only 2 came. Solomon boldly stared me in the eye, and remained still as a rock. His ears flickered, then he rested his head on the ground. I gritted my teeth at him, holding back the urge to start screaming. I stuffed my anger down, knowing that I was just frustrated at my self for talking so harshly to Terry. I let out a sigh and returned the nidoran, then pursued the young woman.

Her heavy arcanine left deep paw prints in the mud, making it easy to track the two. Her slowpoke was likely still back at the campsite, she was far too slow to catch up with her trainer in such a short amount of time.

Terry was leaning against a tree, smoking a cigarette. I didn't know that she smoked. She never did it in front of me. The shade of the canopy almost completely obscured her from my sight. The only thing allowing me to see her was the cherry flame at the tip of the cigarette. Her arcanine's eyes darted to me, his ears twitched. His trainer followed his gaze, then we met eyes. She seemed calm at first, so I deemed it okay to approach her. She furrowed her eyebrows as I neared, then turned back to her pokemon.

"You're fine, I'm not mad anymore," she said through her teeth, her hand gliding down Bailey's back. I could tell there was a bit of venom in her words.

"I'm sorry, I didn't know that you'd react the way you did."

"That wasn't an apology. You just said that _I_ was the one in the wrong." She grinned, but it was empty. "It's not you, it's a personal thing. You wouldn't know, but I have a…" she trailed off.

"A what?"

"Grudge," she answered. She walked past me, brushing past my shoulder. Her arcanine skipped behind her. I was alone under the large tree, in the shadow. "You comin'?" I nodded, then followed her without any further conversation.

 _XxXxXxXx_

It was night, we had-Terry, had decided to keep going to Viridian. She stopped talking to me much. Awkward walks in silence, I spent the time talking to Zevoa. It went through one ear and out the other with her, but it kept me occupied. Terry spoke to her pokemon, mostly telepathically with the slowpoke.

She kept persisting that she was over it, but her behavior showed otherwise. I wouldn't doubt that her reason for wanting to go to Viridian was because she wanted to separate from me. I needed alone time. As much as I liked company, I was better on my own.

 _[Except for the fact that without my trainer you'd be dead.]_ I wanted to swat the slowpoke off of her shoulder, but she was speaking the truth. Okay, that was a good part of travelling in groups. I had someone to administer first-aid.

I snorted at the psychic, earning an odd look from her trainer.

Instead, I turned my focus back onto the hunk of wood I had picked up a few steps ago. I hadn't yet figured out what I wanted to whittle it into. So far I was pretty set on making a wooden knuckle duster. That would take a while, and it would be a pretty huge step from the spoon I did a couple months back. All of my belongings, including that spoon, were lost with my backpack. I sighed. Well, I could always use an extra pair of knuckles.

I began whittling. It was a hunk of wood, but within it held the possibility of a thousand different tools. I was thankfully blessed with the patience to transform it.

I glanced at Solomon. I repeated in my head, _all I need is patience, and I can transform you._ He was trudging along, far away from the group. Zevoa was visibly getting bored with the path, she would probably ditch it and run into the woods soon. She usually wouldn't stick around for more than 10 minutes, so I commend her for staying with us for so long.

It was quiet. I could almost hear the wood shavings hit the dirt. I needed some action. I nice long battle, I hadn't had one for a long while. I used to all the time, usually against strong fully-evolved pokemon. In the cave I would fight graveler, on the outside routes I'd fight raticates and the like. But out here there was nothing that could put up a fight against my team.

It wasn't like I could do any mock battles with Terry. I needed to be by myself. Abandon all human contact, it only hurt people in the long run. Maybe go off in the mountains somewhere, me and my pokemon with a carving knife in my hand.

A shaving hit the floor, my knife glided through the wood like butter. Terry turned around. She peered over her shoulder for a while, I wouldn't have noticed if not for the slight glint in her eye.

"I'm whittling. You should try it."

She turned her eyes back to the trail without saying a word.

Then we had another 30 minutes of dead silence. She would look back every few minutes, I guess to see my progress or something. I acted like I wasn't paying attention, but my mind was on her for that entire time. I hoped that it wouldn't remain so awkward between us for long. If I lost her then I'd have zero friends, considering that things between Raymond and I were still pretty choppy and the last thing I considered him was a friend.

"We'll be in Viridian by tomorrow morning if we sleep now," she said without looking at me. She unraveled her sleeping bag, and I took the hint and did the same. After getting settled, I returned Makhai. He was too wild and hyper to be able to sleep outside of his pokeball. Zevoa liked to hunt especially at night, so I'd let her stay out. Solomon would just dig for mushrooms and herbs for the rest of the night. Terry usually did the same, neither of her pokemon were too hyper to sleep outside of their pokeballs.

I didn't have a sleeping bag, I just had my cover that I folded over into a cot. I crawled into it snugly and stared into the night-sky. We had no fire, so I could see the stars especially well. Little black birds would dart from branch to branch, like they were playing tag.

Then, as I mindlessly watched the birds hopping around, I heard rustling next to me. I turned over onto my side, locking eyes with the Terry. We silently stared at each other; both wanting to speak to the other, but neither having the gall to do so.

"It-it was my brother." A single black feather floated to the ground between us, then blew in the wind. The moonlight reflected off her hazel eyes, the only emotion I could see in the darkness. "Rangers killed him."

"I'm sorry to hear that. I didn't know-"

"It's not your fault. A lot of people don't. We've been persecuted throughout the history of this region. His death wasn't anything new," she said the last part under her breath, but I heard her clear. What was she talking about? I remembered that weird homeless lady outside of the market all those months ago, she had mentioned something about her people being killed by the invaders. I needed more answers before I came to conclusions.

I didn't want to make it obvious that I was completely clueless, but I needed to get answers. "You mean the invaders?"

"Invaders? I prefer to call them assholes," she spat with venomously. "Barbarians coming into this country and killing or enslaving everyone in it. The waves of something that happened 200 years ago are still fucking people over now."

"It's still that prevalent?" I asked genuinely, not knowing that it probably sounded like a very ignorant question to someone else's ears.

"Prevalent enough that I had to change my name to be accepted by them," she growled. "Is Floyd your real name? Or are you a second generation?"

"Uh, yeah. I was born Floyd North." I lied without looking directly at her.

She snorted, then rolled over onto her back. I did the same, and we both stared at the stars. Did we mend our fences or was this just her being temporarily content with my company? "What's your real name?"

"None of your business. I might tell you someday, but I'd like for you to just call me Terry," she answered quietly. Now that I knew it wasn't her real name, it felt odd to my tongue to keep calling her it. Like I was unwillingly telling a lie.

We sat in silence, I closed my eyes and drifted off. How could I trust someone enough to sleep next to them when I didn't even know their name?

 **Please review, favorite, follow if you enjoyed.**


	21. Chapter 22

Something hung over my vision, blocking out the sunlight. I panicked, flailing about before tearing it from my face. I scrutinized the sheet of paper in my hand, but I couldn't read what was on it. I rubbed the crusties out of my eyes and released a loud-exaggerated yawn. I looked around, noticing that there was no-one in sight. Terry was gone, so were the two pokemon I left outside of their balls that night. I doubted that Zevoa went too far, and Solomon never strayed too far. But Terry? We were supposed to leave together in the morning.

I looked down, scanning over the note. She left for Viridian, and whenever I got Gear I'd be able to call her since she left her phone number on the bottom of the page. That was it. Well, at least we'd still be able to talk. Even if I didn't think we parted on the best of terms. I was content with it though. I needed alone time.

"Solomon! Zevoa!" I cupped my hands over my mouth and yelled. I waited for a moment, then did it a few more times every few seconds. Eventually, I heard rustling in the leaves, and out came a large mightyena. Zevoa strode up to me, tail wagging as she greeted me. I scratched her ear and soon came Solomon from behind me, he stuck me in the leg with his horn. It didn't pierce the skin, but it hurt enough that I turned around and soccer kicked the nidoran. It, of course, missed and I landed flat on my ass. It just made me even more happy that Terry was gone.

 _XxXxXxX_

"Solomon, poison sting!" I ordered, pointing at a butterfree lazily fluttering in the wind. The insect was the size of a small bird, and it had eyes bigger than my own. With every flap, a flurry of small spores would fall like glitter off of the wings.

We were slightly off the path, in an area of the forest made up of flower bushes and pleasant scents. I was never a plant enthusiast, so I couldn't tell you what they all were. All I could say was that they were pretty. Deep blues, fiery reds, luscious greens. I found myself frozen in place by the sheer beauty of it. But, of course I would ruin the atmosphere of tranquility by beating a wild animal senseless, right?

Solomon shot a barrage of poisonous darts straight from his back into the butterfree. Several tore through it's wings, sending it to the ground. But the holes in its wings slowly healed over, and it looked completely okay. But it was angry. I could tell even though it's face was emotionless.

The butterfree hovered back into the air and stared down the nidoran. Just as Solomon's quills stood on end; ready to shoot, he began floating in the air. He flailed about, growling and shrieking, before he was tossed into a rose bush. He screeched and lept out of the bush, bleeding out of a dozen little holes in his body. He looked pissed.

The nidoran leapt at the butterfree, horn ready to impale the insect. It danced out of the way, and Solomon fell to the ground gracefully, then shot another barrage of quills before the butterfree could recover from the previous attack. That round was enough to take out the butterfree for good, several had directly pierced through its head.

Makhai jumped out of nowhere and started devouring the insect by the mouthful. I nearly threw up as I watched him lick the guts from the thorax like it was pudding on a spoon.

Solomon was licking his wounds, I took that as a note to return him to his ball so he could heal. His training was done for the day anyway. I had already gotten him into 5 or 6 battles, which seemed like a lot, but I wanted him to evolve as soon as possible. Who wouldn't feel safe with a nidoking just a hair away at all times?

I walked through the forest back onto the path. It had sprinkled earlier that day, ice cold rain. An indication that winter was nearing. I walked carefully to avoid the puddles and mud, but I noticed some tracks. I could recognize them as being the same as Zevoa's tracks, but there were so many of them. Like it wasn't just her running around.

Then I remembered, there were other mightyena in the forest. Maybe she was reuniting with her pack? I was okay with that, as long as she didn't stay too long. We were probably close to the town, I wanted to challenge the gym leader soon, and I couldn't do that without her.

I followed the tracks, all of them were facing different directions and it was a little hard to tell which way they were going. I made a gut decision and went straight, I didn't really have a reason, it just felt like that was the way.

It led me to a tree. It was dead, tipped over vertically. The rotting tree had a hole dug under its side and scratch marks all over it. The paw prints led directly into the hole. I released Solomon and Makhai. They sniffed at the wood and inside of the hole, maybe they recognized the scent as Zevoa's? I wouldn't take the chance of going in there and finding a pack of angry pokemon waiting for me.

The entrance of the hole was dug deep enough that it could've easily fit a mightyena, probably even several at once. I grabbed a stick and slammed it against the tree, hopefully making enough noise to scare them out. _*Bang!* *Bang!*,_ but there was nothing.

I sighed and decided I might've went the wrong way. Makhai started screeching, but I brushed it off. It was one of the only ways he could vocalize any of his emotions, screeching and hitting things. Besides, Solomon was being his usual reclusive self, so I doubted anything was wrong.

I turned around just as a large grey animal leapt up at me. I flinched and covered my face. I could feel it on me leaning on my leg. I peeked from under my arm. It was just a little one. A little smoky grey puppy with big ears and a fat hanging belly. It couldn't have been any more than a few months old.

I knelt down and petted the puppy behind its big ears. I giggled as it licked me all over my face and neck. Nice to have a pokemon treat me like I wasn't a chew-toy. I recognized the species fairly quickly, it was a poochyena. It had the same general look of a mightyena, except it was small and greyer. I looked up, hoping to find its mother. And, I did. But not just one, about a dozen, and one of them could've been its mother.

The last time I saw that many pokemon in one place, they were hunting me. That was when I caught Zevoa. But then, they were hostile. Now, they were just staring. No anger or hunger in their eyes. Just curiosity. One of them galloped to me, it was noticeably larger than the others. Burn scars were scattered across its body, after some inspection, I realized that it was Zevoa.

After I started petting her and greeting her, the rest of them did the same, and soon, I was flooded by black fur and saliva. I giggled and laughed, they were so cute. I wished that I could have all of them. I looked over all of them and saw Solomon and Makhai staring at us perplexity. I temporarily halted my little mob of joy, as much as I didn't want to, because I had somewhere to be.

"Zevoa, c'mon girl," I whistled. She stepped out of the group, licking the puppy in the face and doing the same to several other members of the pack also. I returned her and walked off, that interaction went better than I thought it would.

Makhai bounced over to me and sat on my shoulder. He never did that before, but it was a welcome change. It just meant that he was warming up to me. I could support him, but it still ached on one of my shoulders from the beedrill attack.

I looked back and saw that the mightyena had retreated into their den, except for one. The poochyena pranced behind me adorably, I shooed it away, but it kept following anyway. I decided to just ignore it, figuring it'd turn back eventually.

 _XxXxXxXx_

"Guys, get back here!" I cried out to Makhai and Zevoa, both of whom were terrorizing a few trainers in the town. They didn't often get to interact with people, and while Makhai was mostly acting out of curiosity, I wasn't too sure about Zevoa.

Someone had petted the poochyena behind its ear, and it-he, had chomped their hand. I, of course, took the blame, and forced out an apology, which is better than having to pay cash for a minor injury.

The poochyena mostly followed Zevoa and did pretty much everything that she did. I didn't want to give him a name, if I gave him a name, I knew for certain that I'd become attached, and I didn't have time to train up a baby pokemon so that it would be strong enough to challenge a gym leader.

Speaking of the gym, I still hadn't found it. Viridian wasn't a large city, not half as big as Pewter, so there was no reason for the gym to be so hard to locate. I was hoping that I could maybe challenge a couple trainers that day to loosen up my pokemon, then challenge them later. It was noon, so I only had about six hours of sunlight left. The days were far shorter during this time of the year, so I had to make use of the light while I could.

"Zevoa, I've had enough of you," I growled frustratedly. I returned her back into her pokeball, then cursed at Makhai and did the same to him. The only one that was behaving was Solomon, he was antisocial whether or not there were people around. He and I would get along if he was more of a.

The puppy sniffed around at the spot that Zevoa disappeared from. He whined and scratched at my leg, pouting so enchantingly that I just wanted to cuddle him for eternity. I needed to find him a trainer, otherwise I'd be stuck with his adorable ass for the rest of his life.

"C'mon guys, let's try and find that gym," I motioned forward, Solomon stuck to the ground on my right, the poochyena walked ahead, but not too far away. I was running out of shoes to throw at him.

 _XxXxXxXx_

It had been two hours. I stopped at the pokemon center in town and got some directions. Apparently there is a 'Gym Street' that I had been completely overlooking. It was on a block over from the center, it took me a few minutes to get there. By then, I was so tired that I didn't think I even could walk anymore.

The poochyena was right by my side, and he walked in with me. It was okay, It's not like I'd have to use him in a battle.

But I persevered, and I made it to the gym. It was huge, like a warehouse. A huge sign read _**'Viridian City Pokemon Gym.'**_ Trainers walked in and out, some with huge grins on their faces, some blue as a morning glory. Well, if there was that much variation in their expressions, that meant that at least I wasn't guaranteed to lose, right?

I pushed open the glass doors and stepped into the building. On the inside it looked even bigger than before. The ceiling was at least 50 feet high, maybe bigger. A man stood on a square on the floor, directly across from another, much younger, girl with black hair and a green sweater. She commanded a large purple snake to spit a glob of purple sludge at a slim brown squirrel with a bone helmet on. The marowak chucked its club at the snake, stabbing it through the hood and stood expressionless as the snake screeched its mind out.

The poochyena growled and barked excitedly at the events. Which was expected, I doubted that he had ever seen a battle between any pokemon other than mightyena.

I was sweating like a Turkey on Thanksgiving, my shirt felt too tight, and my anxiety literally felt like it had materialized into a person and was staring a hole through my chest. Judging by the ground pokemon in front of him and the way he handled himself, he was the gym leader. He was tall, wore a casual blazer with sweatpants. He had a focused look in his dark eyes, he smoothed back his jet black hair and grinned at the challenger. He returned his marowak and strode up to the girl smugly.

She turned around and I could've sworn that I saw a tear drop fall down her face. Oh no, that wasn't a good sign. The hyena yipped and laughed. She turned and glared at me, I covered my mouth, pointing at him. She huffed and stomped out the door.

"Oh, don't mind her. This is her, what, 4th time I think?" The man said behind me. I jumped and turned around at the sudden sound of his voice. I laughed nervously, but he waved me off. "It's fine, first time jitters. Just give me your card and we'll start the battle," I nodded hurriedly and fished out my card and handed it over. He scanned it, then smiled.

"You came a long way from Lavender for you to not have a single badge," he questioned. I was already nervous as hell, him inferring that I was a fraud wasn't helping that at all.

But, a lie flowed off my tongue and I answered, "Well, I was born in Lavender, but I'm from somewhere close to here," I smiled at my sudden cleverness.

"Is that true? I've never seen you around here…and I've been living here for 33 years" he said suspiciously, looking me up and down.

"I, uh…" I laughed. At that point I literally wanted to jump out of my body and ditch it.

He looked back down at my card, then his eyes widened,"Wait...Floyd North? _The_ Floyd North?" His jaw fell limp, but he regained his composure soon after. How did he know who I was? How did my anti-social attitude and wary nature garner _any_ attention whatsoever? "You're the one who fought the nearly full-grown onix and survived when you didn't even have a single badge? Good thing that ranger saved you, otherwise we wouldn't be about to have this battle!" He laughed enthusiastically.

"Anyway, my name is Adrian Bunning, the leader of the Viridian City Gym!" I didn't know how to respond, since he already knew my name and was aware of a pretty big detail regarding my life so far in this world. He knelt down and pointed at a square on the ground, I took the note and stood on top of it, fidgeting nervously in anticipation. In just a few moments, I'd be battling for my very first gym badge.

He smiled and ran over to his side, about 50 feet away. Yeah, 50 feet, and that wasn't even the only one in the gym. Oh god. This was my first gym battle. What if I lost? What type of loser can't beat their first gym leader? _Well, other than Terry._

"Come out Tawny!" He tossed a pokeball and my heart skipped a beat at what came out. _It's okay, sandslash are common pokemon,_ I thought. I held my chest and thought for a moment. _I could use Zevoa, she could probably beat this thing, but she'd get injured enough that she'd also probably lose against his next pokemon._

I made my decision and chucked Makhai's pokeball. The mankey came out screaming and screeching bloody mary, but it was his regular level of insanity that I was already used to. He listened well enough, he was physically pretty strong, and he was arguably the fastest on my team. He could handle this.

Then the battle broke out. "Rollout!" He curled into a spike ball and shot at Makhai, who front flipped over the sandslash with ease. He beat his chest and furiously sandslash brought it back around, and this time it was going much faster. Makhai didn't dodge it, he took it full force. The monkey stood his ground, counter pushing the sandslash by holding its spikes. He held the sandslash in place, completely still. He gripped the sandslash and chucked it back onto its side of the gym. It opened back up mid air and landed on its feet, hissing at him, showing all of its razor sharp teeth.

"Rush it!" Makhai screeched and ran at top speed. He gave it a haymaker to its stomach. The wild punch knocked the wind out of the armadillo, he then kneed it in the face.

"Gain some distance!" It outstretched its arms and spinned like a twister. The sudden attack slashed Makhai's face. It was superficial, but it was enough to get him angry, which was what I was trying to avoid.

Makhai screeched and beat his chest, and I could see the red fire in his eyes. "Gyro ball!" The sandslash curled into a ball and shot high speed Makhai, knocking him a few centimeters away from being out of bounds.

The ball kept spinning mid-air, defying gravity. "Focus!" Makhai growled lowly, closing his eyes and showing his teeth. He got into a fighting stance, an actual one, not just throwing his hands in the air and baring his teeth like usual.

A bunch of things happened at once. The poochyena barked, I forgot he was there. The sandslash stopped spinning and dropped to the floor with a heavy sounding thump. The leader turned his attention to the hyena, eyebrows raised. While they were both distracted, Makhai took the opportunity to dash at the sandslash. He roundhouse kicked its face, then gave it an uppercut to the face that knocked it out.

"He's not mine, he's just been following me around! I promi-" He raised a hand, then smirked.

"It's okay, just send out a different pokemon," the leader looked around, then pointed at someone who was just casually strolling past our battle. "You, take his poochyena and put it in the back," he told the young man.

"Yes sir," he whistled at the poochyena, but he didn't respond. "What's his name?" The aid asked.

"Uh, he doesn't have one," I rubbed the back of my neck. The poochyena didn't even look at him, he just kept staring at the battle zone. "Come on, let's go," I grabbed the loose skin around his neck and gently guided him to the man. He put his head down and whined, but followed the man regardless.

"Anyway, let's get back to business. We both have two more pokemon, this should be quick," he chucked a blue ball at the gym floor, it exploded louder than pokeballs usually do, but I brushed it off. Different ball, different sound.

A giant red camel popped out. It had open humps on its back, red liquid poured over out of them. It spat at the ground in front of me and the floor melted on the spot. I shivered, I'd need the big guns for this battle.

"Zevoa!" I threw her ball, but this time, directly in front of the camel. She appeared just under its long neck, but she didn't go for that, though. She latched onto its leg and pulled the appendage right from under it. The camel rocked back and forth, trying to regain it's balance. Liquid spilled over from its humps, hitting just inches from Zevoa. She let go, startled, and the camel took the opportunity to blow fire at Zevoa.

My heart tore every time I heard her yelp in pain, but I worked past it. I knew she wouldn't be injured, but it was still painful for _me_. "Zevoa, scary howl!" She glared at the camel, then howled deeply and darkly. It backed down, humps boiling. Red liquid spilled from the sides of its mouth, then he spit flames at her, she ended her attack as it narrowly sailed pass her.

"It stomped on the floor, the whole building shook. I jumped in surprise. Then I got an idea. "Hey, can I return her and send out another pokemon but still be able to use her in the battle?"

" _Yes?_ I mean, it's not against the rules I guess," he shrugged. Perfect.

I recalled Zevoa and sent out Solomon. He appeared melancholy as usual, sniffing around at the floor. He then turned his attention to the camel. It puffed smoke warningly. "Solomon, poison sting!" The nidoran quills grew erect, and he shot them at it, every single one of the needles hit the camel like a pin-cushion. The camel roared, spouting lava from it's back and all over the floor. Solomon hopped out the way and did it again, this time hitting the camel in the face.

At this point, his pokemon was struggling to stand up, and it's breathing was staggered. I had this battle in the bag. "Jamal, lava plume!" Adrian ordered. It's hump boiled over, the camel lowered its head and it breathed a puff of black smoke from its nose. Lava spouted once more like a sprinkler, and Solomon couldn't avoid it.

The attack soaked him, and he hissed and screeched until he was barely able to stay conscious. This lava clearly wasn't like regular lava. It wasn't nearly as powerful, it was more like an extremely hot liquid that _resembled_ lava. If it was real, then I'd have a dead nidoran.

"Flame burst, you have it in the bag now," he smirked, looking me directly in the eye. I furrowed my brow and gritted my teeth. He was right, but I would still fight tooth and nail to pocket that badge.

Solomon dodged the attack. As soon as it touched down on the ground, the flame bursted when he obviously didn't expect it. Solomon hissed in pain, but the flame burst was just minor damage. "Poison sting!" I ordered frantically. If we could just inject a little more poison into the camels bloodstream, it would faint. So that's what I would do.

"But hit its body, not the face!" I pointed at its body, he obeyed and shot a huge number of quills into the camel's belly. It roared again, and it collapsed. It breathed hard, then spouted out a torrent of flames. It bathed the entire floor with fire, and scored direct damage to Solomon, knocking him out. Then it tipped over onto its side, and finally fell unconscious.

"That was fun, you ready for round 3?" He grinned, then chucked his last pokeball on the floor. In a flash of light, a blob of blue slime appeared. Or at least that's what it looked like. It had a clueless look in its black eyes. It had a reptilian appearance, and it drooled from its gummy toothless mouth. Easy enough.

"Zevoa, let's go," I tossed out her pokeball. She seemed perplexed at the opponent in front of her, and she slowly stalked up to it, then sniffed it up and down. The water pokemon smacked Zevoa in the face, knocking her to the floor. She got back up on her feet and growled dangerously at the quagsire, but it stared at her flatly. She pounced on the water pokemon, just as it started to glow a reddish color. She planted her fangs deep into its shoulder, then a shock wave of energy traveled down her body and flung her back to my side of the gym. She climbed back to her feet, not severely injured, but angry.

"Mud bomb!" Adrian yelled.

"Sucker punch!" Zevoa disappeared in thin air with a puff of black smoke and reappeared behind the quagsire just before it even began preparing its attack. She tackled it to the floor, tearing a chunk out of its shoulder with her teeth.

"Flash," the quagsire's body glowed white, slowly getting brighter and brighter, then an explosion of light erupted from the quagsire's body, and for a split second, I couldn't see anything but white. But I heard the sound of a waterfall, and a cackle. The room dimmed, and standing in the middle of the battle zone was a soaking wet mightyena with a shaky breath and a completely unharmed quagsire. I scrutinized its body. Not a scratch on it, and I knew that she took a chunk out of its shoulder not too long ago. It must've had some type of healing technique, recover, if I remembered correctly, was learn able to quagsire.

I was fighting a quagsire with recovery, counter, and it's defense overwhelmed Zevoa's offense. I couldn't win the battle, and I didn't want to resort to having my mightyena beaten to a pulp to realize that. "I-I forfeit the match."

Adrian looked surprised, he recalled his quagsire and strode up to me. "Why? I mean, it's not like you were losing," he asked.

"But I would've. Zevoa can't beat a pokemon like that. It's practically made to beat any physical attacker," I sighed. Adrian laughed and placed a hand on my shoulder.

"Yeah, I'm glad you were mature enough to realize that. Come back whenever you feel like you can beat'em, and I'll be waiting," the leader smiled. He had a certain aura about him, like a teacher, like he wasn't just a great battler, he was someone to look up to, I guess there is a reason they call themselves leaders.

"I'll make sure I come back here. And when I do, I'll be taking a badge," I said seriously. The intern came out from a steel door, my-the poochyena on a leash. The pup jumped on me and licked my hands in greeting. I lifted him up and carried him out of the gym, Zevoa in tow.

We needed training as a team, so as soon as I walked out of the door, it began. Next time I came, I _would_ be taking that badge.

 **Google what a camel sounds like if you've never heard one before. I'm not even gonna say what they sound like, just listen. Anyway, shoutout to camels, every one reading this, every one who reviewed, followed, favorited. Also, there is someone from Korea who read this story, shoutout to them. Don't think I forgot about the majority from the U.S.A and Canada, and Europe. Speaking of that, post where you're from in your reviews along with what you think of this trash story, and if you think this _is_ a trash story. **


	22. Chapter 23

"Lupe, get back here!" I called after the poochyena. He needed to stop purposely trying to get on the bad side of that beast of an ape before it pummeled him into dust. And if it did, I wouldn't have blamed it. The pup turned its attention towards a sleeping Solomon.

Lupe was still in the training purgatory for the last 3 months. I still didn't want to train him for fear that I'd have two mightyena's on my team. I accepted the fact he'd likely never go back to his pack, but I couldn't think of any other way to get him off my back. For now, he'd be the mascot of my team until I decided what to do with him. I wasn't the type of person to pawn him on some random person on the street, I wanted a safe way to part with him that wouldn't hurt my conscience.

Makhai returned to doing his push-ups. I had gotten him into the habit of doing them whenever he was angry. It was starting to get annoying, having to break up fights between him and his teammates just because he couldn't control himself. I was told by Terry that most mankeys never made it to adulthood because of that trait, and at the rate he was going, I know he'd likely become a statistic just like them.

A light snow fell, glazing the ground with white powder. It was deep into winter. We didn't go a day without at least getting a layer. The treetops were covered in the stuff, but my three pokemon were dealing with it fine. They were all from Southern Kanto, were things like this were fairly common.

Solomon didn't improve too much over the last few months, but I wasn't trying to make him physically stronger, my main goal was helping him hone his poisons. Whenever something wanted to fight him, he wouldn't even try to hit them, he'd just shoot his quills into them and they'd pass out within 5 to 10 minutes. Sometimes they'd just flat-out die.

He was far larger than before. His horn was a foot long and he could replenish all his quills within a day. Not that he ever needed to use them all at once, but if he gets into too many battles in one day, the next day they'd all be right back. But he wasn't a nidorino just yet. I spoke to Terry on the phone, and she said he still needed about a month before he'd be a full fledged nidorino.

Zevoa improved the least. She was still the strongest, but the gap wasn't nearly as huge as it was before. I couldn't even tell which of the other two were stronger by that point. Makhai probably needed to evolve before he'd tip the scales in battle against the nidoran in battle.

My team had grown over the last 3 months, which is why I was headed to Viridan City for my gym badge. This would be the last time I went in there. I had completely erased my first battle from thought. That was a mistake. I wasn't ready at the time. _It was just a practice match,_ I had been convincing myself. _This_ was my first match against the leader. I'd win this time.

There was a route to the west of Viridian that I had been training on. A lot of incredibly strong trainers were there, most not on my level. But some were, and I washed them easily. I didn't even need to use Makhai, who was my powerhouse. I would send out Zevoa, and she would tear the trainers pokemon apart. Yeah, we were a lot stronger.

I patched up my friendship with Terry, and we spoke on regular basis. She had her fourth gym badge, and four pokemon on her team. She had just sent me a picture of her current beastly team, and I was thoroughly impressed. She caught a scyther and bought a mareep from a rancher. So, all in all, she was doing fine. Better than I was, at least.

I was on Gym Street, Makhai hanging on my shoulder, Lupe in his pokeball on my waist. Zevoa walking ahead, not even paying any mind to the trainers that passed. Solomon growled deeply at every one who looked at us. He was getting more aggressive as he transitioned from nidoran to nidorino. Aggressive and antisocial. It would only get worse as he grew older. Sooner or later I'd have two pissed off monsters on my team.

I came upon the gym and took a deep breath. I pushed open the glass doors, greeting the intern. His name was Steven Hill or something. He was a nice guy, he liked my pokemon and he fell in love with Lupe.

Steven was a more experienced trainer than I was. He often gave me advice, and was a cunning young man. We had began talking after I ran into him while I was training around the Viridian routes.

"Adrian! Floyd's in!" Steven hollered. Adrian walked over and greeted me with his signature smile.

"Steven, go get this man a drink or something. Don't just stand there!" He pushed Steven away. The young black haired boy glared at Adrian from over his shoulder, I cackled at the show. "I didn't think you'd ever come back, you ready to get this badge, Floyd?"

"Might as well hand it over now," I smirked, walking over to the battle area. "Get ready," I said.

Adrian laughed heartily then jogged to his side. I heard a door slam and turned around as Steven came out of the backroom with two energy drinks. He handed one to me and smiled genuinely. Not like how Adrian smiled, his was kind, with a hint of cockiness. Stevens was authentic, it was warming. I took a sip of the beverage, and Steven stood by my side drinking his. I saw Adrian fish out a pokeball and toss it on the ground, beginning the battle.

"Good luck."

"You say good luck in the beginning, you'll say good work at the end. How about we just start the match?" I grinned, Zevoa was already ready for battle. Her howl echoed in the gym eerily. All the trainers in the gym's eyes darted to Zevoa, and she fiercely growled at them. I glanced at Steven on my side, and he looked impressed at her display. Even Adrian, who I was sure had seen stronger pokemon in the past, had a glint in his eye that told me he was stirred.

There were two pokemon on the field. A marowak. A mightyena. The marowak moved first, throwing his bone at her. Zevoa ran forward and ducked under it, and it sailed back into the ground pokemon's paw. Zevoa pounced on it and earned a whack in the face. She landed with a thump, and I ordered a sucker punch.

She disappeared then reappeared behind the marowak. She grabbed its skull and flung it overhead. "Dark pulse!" A ball of blackness formed between her jaws and blasted the marowak in mid-air. It fell to the ground and was visibly injured, but still climbed to it's feet regardless.

"Double edge!" Adrian ordered his marowak. It chucked its bone, Zevoa wasn't fast enough to dodge it, it hit her head-on. _It used bonemerang even though it was ordered to use double edge,_ I thought. I turned back to the marowak as it was charging Zevoa, _It was a distraction!_ The marowak crashed into her, sending her flying back to our side of the floor.

"Ouch," Steven hissed. I nodded in agreement as Zevoa staggered up. The marowak swung it's bone at the mightyena threateningly, it appeared as if it wasn't even harmed.

"Zevoa, maneuver 3!" Her fangs froze over and she pounced at her opponent. Adrian laughed at her, she had left herself wide open. The marowak swung its bone at Zevoa, and it cracked upon impact with her skull. She yelped and hit the floor with a thump.

"You're gonna have to try something better than that!" Adrian announced triumphantly. I grinned as her limp body disappeared from view, leaving both of my opponents confused.

I learned one thing about marowak. They had 3 layers of skull, each thicker than the last. Any shot directly to it would be practically harmless. It had a virtually unprotected torso. Just plain skin and bone. I winked at Steven, after all, he's the one who gave me the information, and I was gonna use it to the fullest-extent.

She reappeared behind the marowak, a ball of darkness already charged and ready to blast. "Zevoa, dark pulse, aim for the body!" The attack exited Zevoa's jaws and soon crashed into the pokemon's back. It swayed, then coughed twice. I could already see a bruise forming on its back. Finally, it's eyes closed and its legs gave out. Round 1 went to Zevoa.

"Clever. So it's kind of like sucker punch?" Steven asked. Adrian fished out a pokeball and was visibly pondering whether or not he should send out the pokemon within.

"Uh, something like that. I'm still working on a name for it. Sucker blast?" Steven made a face that said he wasn't too keen on the name, "Well, I don't know, but for now, it's maneuver 3," I said with a hint of pride in my tone.

"Well, I think you'd better get ready. Look in front of you," Steven pointed. It was the camerupt that I had so much trouble with before, back for another beating. Whether that beating would be coming from it or coming to it, I wasn't sure yet. Zevoa cackled menacingly, and the camerupt backed down a few steps.

"Flamethrower!" The camel puffed out a breath of flames that missed Zevoa by a longshot. She was behind the camerupt, her fangs pierced the flesh behind its kneecap. It bellowed painfully, then lowered its head so that it was looking between its own legs. It shot a flamethrower directly into her face, eliciting an even more agonizing screech from her. I couldn't stop myself from returning her right there.

"Why did you do that? She could still fight," Steven questioned. Adrian had called his camerupt over to administer some healing to its hind leg.

"I know, but...she's my starter. I can't stand to see her hurt."

"I understand," Steven nodded. We stayed in silence whilst I pondered what I would do next. Both of my pokemon could beat the one in front of me, but the question was which one could do it while being damaged as least as possible. And from what I'd seen, it was nearly impossible to tag Makhai, making him the perfect choice.

"Let's go, you damn dirty ape!" I released the little simian. He screeched and beat his chest, but then calmed down and became focused. He glared at the camerupt with a watchful eye, waiting for it to make a move. There was a twitch in its muscles, minor enough that most people wouldn't notice, but Makhai took it as an act of aggression. He took everything that way. His fist was buried deep into the camel's belly within a few seconds, it wheezed and fell to its front knees. Makhai tucked and rolled from under the camel to avoid being crushed.

"Ancient power!" The camerupt huffed out black smoke. After a moment, it glowed a deep purple color and rocks began to float up from the ground. Makhai was confused by the move, and was looking around baffled at the levitating rocks.

"He should start breaking them…" Steven suggested.

I nodded and gave the command, "Shatter the rocks!"

They all shot at him, and he punched and kicked every one before it even got within two-feet of him. Merely fragments were scattered beneath him, and he stood waiting for the next move.

"Flamethrower!" The camel puffed smoke from its nose as it began to fire it's attack.

A torrent of flames blasted from the camel's throat, "Don't let them hit you!" Makhai dodged the fire, but the camerupt persistently sprayed the flames over the field. Makhai tucked and rolled out of the way of a potential dousing and dashed towards the camerupt. He jumped up and delivered an uppercut to it's chin. The fire couldn't escape from it's mouth, so it went out of the next orifice. Straight through the nose. Makhai stood and watched as the camel howled in pain, stomping it's front hooves on the floor, causing the whole building to shake. Makhai went off balance for a moment, and it delivered a full-power blast of flames directly at him. The bloodcurdling scream would've been enough for me to return him, if when the flames died down I didn't see him get back up, angrier than ever.

He stared it down, he had nothing but pure, unadulterated, rage. "Flame charge!" An explosion of fire erupted from the camel's body and it galloped towards Makhai. He easily dodged the attack and kicked it's rib-cage as it ran past him. Adrian's camerupt didn't even pause to wince before it turned around and repeated the attack. It built up enough speed that it was impossible to dodge, and it knocked Makhai into next week. He had singe marks on his fur all over his body, but was otherwise okay.

"Night slash it!" I pointed to its belly, and he nodded. He rushed the camerupt with glowing dark claws, and he split open its stomach. It wasn't a deep cut, but it did a number on it.

The camel made one last-ditch attack, "Separate yourself!" It opened it's mouth and a powerful blaze gushed from it's throat, creating an intense wall of flames. Makhai roared and dashed into the fire. He rushed through the other side and slammed his fist into into it's face, knocking it out instantly. Round 2 went to him.

The mankey screeched victoriously, pounding on his chest. Then the realization hit him that he was on fire, and that screech turned into one of pain and panic. I returned him and laughed, congratulating the monkey in my head. Steven whispered something under his breath about him being a chimchar, but I brushed it off, instead focusing on the battle.

Now, it was all up to Solomon. I tossed out his pokeball. He sniffed at the floor and recognized it, then crouched defensively with a hiss. Adrian had already released his pokemon, the quagsire. I had no idea how this battle would go, but I knew I'd win this time.

"Poison sting!" Solomon growled and shot the quagsire with a flurry of quills. Like always, each one hit it's target head-on.

"Bullseye!" Steven cheered with a fist raised. The quagsire replied to the attack with a stream of boiling hot water. The nidoran bounced out of the way and dashed at the quagsire full-speed, horn pointing outwards.

"Waterfall!" Just as the nidoran neared, he was smacked with an uppercut that blew him straight into the air. The quagsire shot itself up using a column of water and smacked the nidoran back to the floor. Solomon hit the ground so hard it made a slight crack. I cringed.

"What? I didn't know it had any offensive presence at all!" I shouted at Steven.

"Okay, first off, I'm right next to you. There is no need to yell," Steven deadpanned. "And it doesn't. Waterfall is just a strong water type attack, and your nidoran shouldn't have taken it head on."

"Whatever. We won't make that mistake again. Poison jab!" Solomon's horn dripped a purple liquid. A single drop trickled off and splashed on the floor and ate it away. The nidoran charged at the quagsire.

"Dig!" The quagsire sprayed the floor with a powerful water gun. Solomon stopped and backtracked, not sure what the attack was. The dim-witted pokemon dove into the loose wet ground, disappearing from sight.

"Make sure he doesn't stay still. He's just a sitting duck right now," Steven supplied. I nodded and gave the command. Solomon didn't understand, and instead stood in place and hissed at the ground. I got frustrated and repeated myself. I cursed the fact he wasn't the brightest on the team, Makhai and Zevoa learned after only a demonstration, he took weeks to learn one thing. Whatever, I could work around it.

The quagsire bursted from the ground, but Solomon danced out of the way at the last second. It wasn't speedy enough to dodge the incoming poison jab, and was impaled straight through the stomach.

The water-type coughed up a deep crimson watery blood, and from that second I knew it was poisoned. I silently cheered, knowing quagsire had no natural way of self-curing toxins. The wound slowly healed over, but that didn't matter. It was in its bloodstream.

Solomon hissed at the quagsire a few feet away from it. The salamander remained emotionless. It irked me, it just kept a dead look in it's eye no matter what I did to it. I liked to have reassurance that I was the winner.

"Poison jab, through the head!" I ordered.

"Counter!" Adrian yelled. Just as the jab connected, a shockwave went down Solomon's body, and he was blown away.

He climbed back to his feet, perfectly fine. "Oh no," I said, gripping the sides of my head. I had won, I was winning. I easily bested his other two pokemon, and the quagsire was about to go down. Why did this happen?

"Out of bounds…" Steven murmured. Adrian had returned his pokemon and Solomon stood in silence, unknowing of what had just happened. Adrian didn't have a smirk on his face, his brow was furrowed seriously.

"You lost," Adrian announced, only a few feet away from me.

"Obviously," Steven and I said at the same time. We looked at each other and smiled, although mine was just a facade. I was livid. I had lost on a fluke. Solomon was centimeters out of bounds, _centimeters_ out of bounds, and that was what did him in. The universe hated me.

Adrian chuckled sheepishly. "That was kind of bullshit, huh?" I nodded, still pouting about my loss.

"You...you would've won..." Steven mumbled. Adrian nodded with a fake grin.

"Don't give me that. We both know that I lost, so don't tell me 'Well, at least you tried' nonsense," I snarled. Steven looked surprise at my outburst, but Adrian didn't seem surprised.

"I get saltiness all the time as a gym leader. So you can talk all day about how you deserve the badge, blah blah blah. You do," Adrian sighed. I blinked, shocked. I didn't expect him to say that I _did_ deserve it.

He grinned, "I mean, you did work _to_ achieve success. Three months, right?" I nodded. "Success and winning are independent of each other. You think I always won on my journey to become the Viridian Gym Leader?"

"Of course not. Otherwise you'd be Elite Four," Steven remarked.

" _Anyway_ , you accomplished your goal of becoming a strong trainer, and this thing," he flashed the gym badge, "doesn't make you any better of a trainer. Ask Steven, he has 8 of them," this time, Steven was the one who was flustered. I grinned. "So here, take it. If nothing else, this'll help you get past the gates to Victory Road," he handed me the little token. I nearly had a heart attack. My first gym badge.

"Thank you!" I resisted the urge to give a bear hug to Adrian. Steven patted me on the back, congratulating me as I made my way out of the gym. I wouldn't have to go back in there for a while.

Steven and I ran out of the doors, I was beaming with happiness.

 _XxXxXxXx_

"My friend here just beat a gym leader," Steven leaned over the counter of a 24-hour convenience store. He slid a bottle of liquor in the direction of the cashier. It was late at night, after a night of celebrating between the two of us, and a phone call from Steven to Terry to inform her of the news which ended up with her hanging up on us. Now he was attempting to bribe a store-owner for illegal alcohol. I stood behind Steven, watching the spectacle.

"Well good for him," the middle-aged man smiled, but maintained a cautious eye. I laughed in an attempt to give off an aura of trust.

"We were looking for a little...trophy, could you help us with that?" Steven smirked. It wasn't evil, just mischievous. It reassured me that I wouldn't be going to jail that night, at least.

"Sorry boys, but you two can't be more than seventeen years old," he shook his head. I could see his fingers hidden under the counter. I made sure to stay loose and ready for action, just in case.

"Was hoping you wouldn't say that...," he sighed and reached in his back pocket. I began to dive for him, and the clerk started to pull something from under the counter. From Steven's back pocket came a thick stack of bills. "What?" He slammed them down, and with a grin on his face, said, "Two-hundred crown for a bottle of something hard, who in their right mind would turn that down?" The clerk snatched the bills and counted them out, then sighed. We walked out with that bottle.

Soon, the two of us were on the streets, the bustling streets of Viridian. There were still people out, the shadiest type, but we were okay with that. He was an eight-badge trainer, I was a semi-experienced trainer, they couldn't do anything to us that we couldn't do ten-times worse to them.

We wandered around, tipping trashcans and hitting mailboxes. He sent out a ferocious looking blue cat with black mane. It's fangs crackled with electricity upon appearing, making me wonder how someone like him was entrusted with such a creature. He pointed at a telephone cord, "Watch this." A bolt of lightning shot directly into the wire, and all the lights on the block went-out, making the street pitch-black. Within about 10 minutes, the lights came back on and we heard sirens. We both bolted(pun intended) down an alleyway and practically died of laughter.

Of course, with that whole shenanigan, I had to show my ass too. I let out Solomon, his quills had all grown back, and his body was mostly healed over from the battle earlier. We ducked into an alley as a man walked past, a beer in a paperbag in his hand. I gave the command, and Solomon shot a few quills into the drink, spilling it everywhere and onto the man himself. He hollered irately, shouting for whoever did it to come out.

We cackled not-so-quietly, which gave up our cover. With a flash of light and a threat, there was a little purple moth floating in front of us. Steven and I looked at each other and busted out laughing. I gave a drunken command and the moth was down. He was embarrassed and called out three more pokemon, all of which were dispatched in the same manner, of course with a little help from a luxray. After all his pokemon were down, he skedaddled off, tail tucked between his legs, and by that time we were practically rolling in laughter.

"Bro! You practically just beat a guys entire team with a nidorino!" He exclaimed. I looked around, then spotted Solomon. Sure enough, he was darker, bigger, and purple-er than ever. I dove to hug him, but was caught by the shirt collar by Steven. I was staring into the face of an angry nidorino. I yelped and jerked forward, causing Steven to let go and drop me. I face-planted into the pavement, and it wasn't so funny when the laughter was aimed at me. Okay, it was still pretty funny.

We ran down the street in what I think was us playing...tag? Actually, I had no idea _why_ we were running, or where. All I knew was that I saw Steven running, so I decided to run. He was so disoriented that he crashed into a man, sending both of them to the ground.

"Hey! Watch where you're going, man," he growled, brushing himself off. He scrutinized our appearances, then asked, "Are-are you guys drunk?"

"We're minors, we can't get drunk-"

"Legally," Steven cut-me off. I growled and punched him in the arm, resulting in a slap-fight between two teenagers. The man broke us up, then made a disgusted sigh.

"You two should be in bed, shouldn't you?" He asked. After some closer inspection, I noticed that he was actually closer to us in age than I initially figured.

"Pfft, we're trainers..." Steven waved him off.

"Yeah," I burped, and the trainer looked even more disgusted. "I haven't slept in a bed for weeks."

He dusted his long black coat off, "Depends on if you count a pile of garbage," he mumbled. He glared at us both, then settled his eyes on Steven. He squinted his eyes as if he were analyzing him. "Wait...you're Steven! What the hell are you doing out here, you're a gym trainer," he exclaimed.

We looked at each other, then he answered, "Uhh, I'm celebrating. My friend just won his first badge," he exclaimed, then attempted to high five me. It missed, and he hit me right in the face. I shook it off and we fist-bumped instead. The kid snorted.

"You're lucky tomorrows Sunday, otherwise Adrian would chew you out," he straightened out his collar and pushed through us. "Couple of idiots, I tell ya," he huffed. I whipped around to see him already a distance away from us.

"Don't think we didn't hear that, asshole!" I yelled at him.

"It wasn't like I whispered," he laughed smugly.

"Don't think you can talk like that to Steven Hill and get away with it!" His luxray lunged at the boy, but was pushed back by a psychic wave. He landed on the pavement with a hiss, and struggled to climb to his feet. I growled and gave a command to Solomon, who shot a flurry of quills at the boy. They all snapped in half before they even touched him, and clattered to the street.

Before we knew it, Zevoa and 2 pokemon on Steven's team were knocked out by an unseen pokemon. The trainer had been sucked into a shadow-y void, and we didn't see a trace of him.

"Weird," I rubbed the back of my head. Steven nodded in agreement as we returned our team's.

I read all the street signs in a daze, trying to make it back to the pokemon center. Somehow, we wounded up in the gym, passed out in what I assumed was (hoped was) Steven's room in the gym. He even had a special bathroom that I could cover with puke. Oh, how wonderful tomorrow would be.

 **Sorry if the drunken Floyd and Steven scene is off, I accidentally deleted the original and had to re-piece the entirety of it back together. Please review/follow/favorite this chapter if you enjoyed. I actually enjoyed writing the last part, it flowed nicely to me.**


	23. Chapter 24

"My head…" I had been moaning that whole morning. Steven's had the same issue, although his was admittedly worse. We were laying in a slump in some unfamiliar room (or at least it was to me) inside of the gym. Apparently it was his designated room in the gym, all gym trainers have one. It's free, other than the fact that you are running errands for Adrian all day, which apparently wasn't too great of a deal.

"We need to get out," Steven murmured with a pillow on his head.

"No...I need a hanging rope…" I cried. I heard him laugh, then moan in pain. Served him right.

"Go take a shower bro...we need to get out of here," Steven tossed the pillow from his ruffled head then swayed while he stood up. I nodded in agreement with him and struggled up too. I stepped out of the bed next to Steven and trudged to the bathroom.

"Oh!" I slammed the door, then threw my hands to my head. My pain spiked at the noise, and I could've sworn my vision was getting blurry.

"What's the matter?" Steven asked with a yawn. I held my nose and cracked open the door. A disgusting scent came through, "Close it, close it!" Steven yelled. "Who the hell did that?"

"I don't know! One of us!" I yelled back. I growled at the pounding aching that screamed for me to quit screaming.

"Well, someone is gonna have to clean that up, and I know it ain't me," Steven growled quietly.

"But it's your room, and you were _waay_ more drunk last night than I was," I pointed out.

He gasped at the accusation, "Well _neither_ of us would've been drunk last night if _I_ hadn't of took action," he growled.

"Oh, my hero," I deadpanned sarcastically.

"Go to hell, and how would you know that I was more drunk than you anyway?" He snorted.

"What do you remember?" Steven remained silent, "Exactly."

"Well if you're so smart then who barfed in my bathroom?"

I waited a moment to try to piece it together, we stumbled into his room, I went in the bathroom, and I… "You did it, I remember because you stumbled into it and were so piss drunk that you couldn't even make it to the toilet, disgusting," I snorted, then immediately felt guilty for lying to him.

Steven rubbed his neck sheepishly. He looked in the bathroom once more. Once more the putrid smell came through and attacked our noses. "How do I clean that up, bro?"

I scratched my chin, thinking up a method. "Mops, paper towels, or, I mean, you haven't had breakfast yet, so you could…" I trailed off, he gagged, knowing what I was inferring.

"I don't have any of those things."

"Well, does this place have janitors or something? Just call one in," I stated. "Boom, problem solved," I clapped.

"Yeah, except for the fact that it's Sunday and he's off," Steven crossed his arms. "Oh! I have an idea," he exclaimed.

"Alright, new rule, no more yelling," he nodded with his head in his palms.

"Anyway, I was gonna say. Follow me," we left his room and went into the eerily empty gym. The gym was divided into two parts, the battling area and the training area. In the training area there were punching bags, targets, dummy's, etc. The reinforced steel door that led to his room was on that side, while the storage closet/kitchen was on the other. Part of me wished that I would've trained in there instead of in the forest. But I knew that I'd just get sidetracked and end up spending most of my time socializing and get no progress with my team. We kept trudging through the gym until we came upon the storage closet/kitchen by the entrance.

It was like a lounge. A fridge sat in the corner, a couple of red couches in front of a television set and an oven in the other corner. We stepped over the brown carpet and through a wooden door that led to the closet. In it were two boxes, Steven picked up the one on the right and rummaged through it, then came upon a specific great ball that he put in his pocket after finding. We left the room and went back to his room in silence.

"So what's in it?" I turned and asked him as he opened his door. He simply smirked and released what was within. What came out of the ball was….underwhelming. I couldn't say what I truly felt about it without coming off as insulting. Like quagsire, but slimier. It was brownish pink and dripping with goop and about as big as Zevoa. Steven walked over to the bathroom and opened the door, letting out the horrible stench within. I watched as the slime monster lifted it's head and began moving towards the bathroom, about as fast as a brain dead slug.

"What the hell is it gonna do?" I asked, "And is it yours?"

" _He_ is a gastrodon, and he'll eat the vomit. We use him to clean up spills and the like in the gym," Steven said. "Oh, and he's not mine, let's get out of here."

We stepped out of the room and proceeded to the exit. "It's a gym pokemon, people donate pokemon to us sometimes and instead of training them, we use them to help us run the gym," he explained.

"So what are we doing today?" I asked the black haired trainer as he grabbed his navy blue coat from the coat rack before we left the building.

"I don't know, train I guess?" He shrugged. It was very windy that day, and snow had covered the ground completely. I released Lupe and he took great delight in catching the flakes.

"Nah, I do that everyday. Something else…" I pondered. Steven was preoccupied with throwing snowballs at Lupe. He giggled as the pup tackled him to the ground and tore into his arm(or at least try to, since Steven's coat was thick enough that it negated the damage done by Lupe's underdeveloped fangs.

"I know they're holding double battle competitions this time of year, we could enter. I think we'd stand a decent chance," he suggested. "I entered one with a friend last year and nearly won."

"Sounds interesting…" I thought. "Yeah, let's do it."

We first stopped at a convenience store and bought food for our pokemon and us, then sat around waiting for the event to start. It was 11:00am, and the festival started at twelve, which gave us time to sit around and enjoy our snacks before the battles.

We walked to the middle of the town, a large brick square bustling with activity. Several tents were set up, some with games and snacks. Families were smiling and laughing, everyone was having a good time. But the main attraction was the center. People were lined up in the dozens, they would write their names and take a seat on a fold-able chair. Steven grabbed my hand and we ran to the line as quick as possible before it got any longer. About 22 people were in front of us, each in a pair, not counting the people who had already entered.

"We'll just write our names down and the two pokemon we wish to enter, then we'll be ready for the tournament," Steven explained. I thought about which pokemon I would enter. I technically had four, but only 3 could battle. I already knew Zevoa would be my first choice. She was the most experienced, and she didn't share a psychic weakness like the other two. So the last position was between Solomon and Makhai. Solomon had recently completed his transition into a nidorino, so he had a strength boost that probably made him equal to Zevoa. Makhai was far quicker but not as powerful. Solomon didn't have variety in his moveset, his poison sting was accurate and effective but he couldn't fight in close quarters as well as Makhai either.

While I was weighing my options, the line in front of us had shrank. 3 pairs were ahead, so I had to decide fast. So far I was in favor of Makhai, but I still wasn't completely certain of my decision.

"Floyd," he shook me. I turned to him, not noticing that he had been saying my name for the last few seconds. "Have you decided yet?" I shook my head. "Well, I've got something for you that'll hopefully make it easier," he flashed a shiny black stone. I paused to figure out what it was, seeing as it was oddly familiar.

"It's a moon stone. I figure it'll help you evolve that nidorino into a nidoking when the time comes," I placed it into my palm.

"How do I use it?" I asked. I was getting a little giddy at the thought of getting a nidoking before my second badge, but I held back my excitement.

"Just put it around his neck like a necklace, and he'll be a nidoking within a year, as opposed to the usual ten that it takes without one," my heart sank. A year? In the game all it took was a five second cut scene.

"Uh, thanks," I was disappointed a little, but I really was grateful. I had no idea where to find one, and without him, I would've probably been settled up with a nidorino for a while. "Oh, we're up," I announced. An old man stood behind a white table inside of the tent, a stack of papers on top of it. He unzipped his thick fur coat, his belly spilled out like gravy once freed. I stifled a laugh.

The man rolled his eyes and passed the papers to the both of us, "Just fill in the blanks, boys," he spoke with his cigar still between his lips, making his already thick accent discernible because of it. I took the sheet of paper and filled it all out and handed it to the man. A moment later Steven did too, and he pointed to the bunch of chairs to his right.

We both took our seats and soon after the man stood in front of us, he tossed his cigar into the snow and stomped out the fire before speaking. "A'right, so the rules are as follows. You'll be battling back there," he pointed his thumb behind him to a fenced-in snow field. Simple. "We'll be doin' an elimination tournament, I'm sure you're all old enough to know what that means," he stopped and lit another cigar. "First battle is between you two," he pointed to a girl in a thick sweater and a boy with a forest green wool coat similar to the one I wore. "And you guys," he pointed to us.

"And to make this quicker, if one person loses all their pokemon, your team loses and you're outed from the game. If your pokemon kills another, you're disqualified. If you hurt anyone in the crowd, you're disqualified. If you-"

"Okay we get it, just get on with it old man!" Someone shouted from behind us.

"If you're that guy, you're disqualified," the old man snarled. The boy cried out in protest, but after a few harsh words from the man, he was forced to leave along with his partner. He was no-nonsense. "Last rule, if you withdraw a pokemon, you cannot use it in that battle. Now, will you four get on with it?" Steven and I jumped up out of fear, as did our opponents, and we ran over to the battle area. A man opened the gates for us, and we found where we were supposed to stand fairly quickly. There were two cement squares coming out of the snow on each side of the field that was about two-thirds the size of a football field.

A crowd of people gathered around outside of the fence and into foldout chairs, two families cheered for our opponents, and dozens of other ones watched with snacks in hand. We had no one on our side.

Our opponents released their pokemon, and I shrunk at one of them. It was a bipedal bear with a ring on it's belly. It let out a furious bellow and got on all fours. The girl in the sweater had a little horse with a flaming mane and tail. Both were iconic and I immediately recognized them as ursaring and ponyta. Both formidable in their own rights, although I had no experience with fighting either.

Raymond gave me a look and released his black and blue cat. The luxray flicked it's tail and glared at the two pokemon in front of it. The ponyta backed down in fright. The ursaring stood tall and roared. The two large predators charged each other, and I took that as my cue to let out my pokemon.

Zevoa took a moment and got to know the field, sniffing around on the snow. I could see a slight shiver in her, but the battle would warm her up. "Zevoa, handle the other one," I commanded. Her shadow morphed around her and she disappeared into it, reappearing in the horses, causing it and my opponent to shudder at the sucker punch technique. She grabbed it's hind leg and pulled the appendage from underneath it. The horse fell over and Zevoa pounced on top of it, tearing into it with her teeth and claws. The ponyta blew a breath of flames into the mightyena's face, forcing her to jump off of it. They battled it out while I turned my attention to the luxray and ursaring's battle.

The luxray danced out of the way of the bears attacks and shocked it with electricity, but would occasionally be swatted in the face by its powerful paws. It recovered and continued its assault every time. The electricity wasn't doing too much damage, but it was succeeding in making it very pissed.

"Crusher, earthquake!" The boy yelled. His pokemon roared and stomped its foot, pulling up a 10 foot wave of turf that slammed into the luxray.

"Alright, Ivan, switch to physical attacks, start off with wild charge," Steven commanded. Outside of battle he had a different look in his eyes. It told me he was an experienced battler, he looked confident and powerful. The luxray obeyed with zero protest, further testifying Steven's proficiency as a trainer and it's body exploded with electricity. He tackled the ursaring and pinned it on the ground. He unloaded the electricity into the bear while standing atop of it, and the attacks strength was boosted by the wet snow. The ursaring gritted it's teeth past the shock and tossed him off.

I turned my attention back to Zevoa and noticed that the ponyta's breathing was ragged and it was standing a little funny. Zevoa was a little beat up, but was otherwise fine. The ponyta used an ember attack, to which Zevoa ran straight through and grabbed her opponents jugular. It squirmed and panicked for a few seconds before it's body went limp. It was returned and replaced soon after. The pokemon in it's fallen partners place was a blue and yellow wolf, a hoenn pokemon by the name of manectric. It's fur crackled with electricity.

On the other side, the luxray had the ursaring on the ropes, but it wasn't looking too good either. One good move and the big cat would be down. "Ivan, stand back and use your thunderbolt," Steven ordered. I turned my attention back to Zevoa as she battled it out up close with the manectric. They were having an old-fashioned dog fight. There was nothing that I could say that would make her fight any more in her favor. I knew that electric types specialized in ranged attacks through my previous encounters with them, and a close up fight would make those techniques useless.

I turned back to see the ursaring on it's back fainted and Ivan disappearing into his pokeball. My opponents released their respective replacements at the same time. Steven had a black fox with a rings on it's forehead, thighs, ears and tail. The boy had a similar pokemon. A fox with a glorious mane and a yellow tuft on its head. It had a large fluffy tail and its appearance on the field melted the very snow beneath its feet.

"Smoke, flare blitz!" The boy practically screamed. His pokemon erupted into flames and rocketed at the umbreon.

"Throw up a few barriers," Steven said calmly. The umbreon reacted fast and put up a nearly invisible shield. The flareon crashed through it. The umbreon threw up six more, each directly in front of the last. It crashed through them. The umbreon focused and put up one more large force field. The flareon slammed into it, sending a crack through it. It's fire was still wildly burning as it repeatedly smashed into the wall. The tension was building up on the shield and the umbreon was straining itself to keep the barrier up. It need my help.

The battle was going sour on my end. The manectric had taken down Zevoa, and I was forced to return her. I threw out Solomon's pokeball, and he snorted at the battlefield. Most of the snow on the ground was melted do to the flareons assault expect for a few patches here and there. It's flame had not petered out yet, but it was looking very stressed trying to break through the umbreons defense. The manectric was receiving medical attention for its wounds by its trainer. I could deal with it later. For now, I needed to beat that flareon before it took out Steven's last pokemon.

"Solomon, poison sting," I pointed at the flareon. He executed the attack, but there was one problem. The stings all dissipated before they even reached their target. The fire was too hot. The umbreon had several huge cracks in its shield, and I didn't think it could hold out any longer. "Dammit, use poison jab!" I commanded him frustratingly. He charged the flareon, horn dripping with acidic toxins. He didn't even need to build up the poison before he used it. That evolution was a big help.

His horn penetrated the flareon through its thigh, halting the flare blitz focusing the pokemon's attention towards Solomon. He slammed the flareon on the ground repeatedly until it shook his horn out. It fell to it's side and struggled to stand back up because of its leg injury, but it could still battle.

"Take out the manectric, I can handle this thing," Steven ordered me.

"But you could barely do that last time!" I yelled at him. The flareon and Solomon were dueling, and Solomon was already pretty hurt from the fight even though he hadn't been on the field more than 2 minutes. His umbreon was trying to keep the manectric from tag teaming my pokemon with a barrier while we discussed our next move.

"I can't risk you poisoning it. If it's poisoned, it'll get a _lot_ stronger. Aldo should be able to beat it," Steven growled at me. He commanded his umbreon to throw up a shield between Solomon and the flareon just before he was hit with a flamethrower. I ordered Solomon to re-focus his attention to the manectric, who was looking a lot better because of the quick healing. The boy and the girl were having a conversation, but I couldn't really hear it. I couldn't hear many of their commands either. I guess they wanted to maintain the element of surprise. We didn't really need that element much anyway.

The umbreon shot a multi-colored beam at the foxes face. The fox's pupils dilated as it stumbled forward and fell. "Get it together, Smoke," it's trainer yelled, trying to get through to his pokemon.

"Poison jab!" Solomon charged the manectric, but it danced out of the way. "Poison sting!" Solomon showered the manectric with poison stings, however the majority missed their target.

The umbreon kept firing beams of light at the flareon, and it continued tripping over its feet. It looked at the battle between the manectric and Solomon, and decided to help it's partner out. A pale blue energy sailed across the field and gently connected with my nidorino. He looked confused at first, but eventually settled into the energy. Solomon slowly developed a thick fat over his muscle, making me wonder just what move he used on the nidorino.

"It was a guard swap. It strengthens the defenses of the pokemon it's used on based off of whatever Aldo's defenses are at the time. His defenses are sky high compared to your nidorino's, so his defenses were boosted to that level," Steven explained. He was enjoying the new boost he received, and he was tanking thunderbolt after thunderbolt without wavering even a little bit. He was able to trade blows with the manectric much easier now that he didn't have to worry about dodging its electric attacks.

The flareon had snapped out of its confusion and was firing off powerful fire blasts at the umbreon. Each one was blocked by a shield, but they were getting weaker and weaker. "Aldo, finish it."

The umbreon threw up a shield and disappeared behind it. The flareon looked around, but couldn't spot the umbreon. It appeared charging at the flareon, who hissed at the approaching illusion. Just as the illusion neared, however, it vanished and materialized charging at the flareon. It repeated this technique until the flareon was knocked out, then we won the battle.

We shook hands with our opponents in good sportsmanship, and exited the field. We watched the next battle while nurses healed our pokemon. "That was the most intense battle I've ever had," I told him.

He nodded in agreement, adding, "That flareon was really strong. I'd say they were both around 6 badge level in strength, but they weren't very good at working together, and they weren't too bright either."

"We were. Especially since that was our first time battling together," I said, watching the battle from our front row seats. It was boring, at least in comparison to ours. But at least it was quick. They all had first and second stage pokemon, so not a whole lot of flare blitz, wild charging, or mauling going on. Soon, the battle was over, and the third one commenced. Pretty much the same as the one before it, except one guy had an onix that sent chills up my spine. I decided not to pay attention to it and instead turned back to Steven, who was rambling on about his own team.

"I need a new dark type pretty badly," Steven switched topics.

"Wait, you don't have a full team of six yet? But Adrian said you had 8 badges," I questioned him. He simply laughed.

"I want my last pokemon to be a special one. I mean, all of my pokemon are special, but I want something that has a special connection to _me_. And not just battling wise, I'm talking the same type of relationship between me and Aldo, tighter than a knot."

I scratched Lupe behind the ear while I listened to Steven speak. He licked the trainers hand, making him smile at the cute gesture. I didn't have the time lately to spend with him, mostly because for the past 3 months I was procrastinating on getting rid of him. In truth, I liked him, but I didn't need a pet, I needed a fighter.

"Say...you haven't been training this guy very much. I've never seen you battle with him before," he asked.

"He's kind of just...there, I guess? I mean, I don't mind having him around, but I don't really want to train him. He's like a pet."

"Oh, I see," Steven mumbled. "Well, consider it a trade. I take this poochyena off of your hands."

"And what do I get?"

"You got a moon stone," Steven smirked. Well, that solved two of my problems.

"Uh, you can have him," I handed over the pup's pokeball. "Just, take good care of him. I plan on leaving to get my next badge in a few days, so I won't be around. But I know you'll take good care of him and he'll become a strong mightyena one day," I smiled. The poochyena had no idea that I had just traded him for a rock, but he would have a much better life under Steven's wing than he would have as a pet under mine.

"Uh, thanks. And I will," he promised. We were called back up to battle, this time against two young boys. They had matching navy blue outfits with white scarves. Either they were gay or twins. I didn't care either way, I just knew that they were about to lose.

I released Zevoa and Steven let out his luxray. The two looked at each other nervously as they released their pokemon. One was a dark red lizard with a horn protruding from the back of its head. The other was a seagull with large wings and a stubby body. It had an awkward appearance but I could see why they were nervous. The wingull was very weak to electricity. Before it even got a chance to move it was struck down by a bolt of lightning.

Zevoa tore into the charmeleon in close combat with a combination of sucker punches and crunches while Ivan beat up a graveler. That was also a testament to how strong the luxray was, that he was able to beat a type he was weak to with relative ease. I assumed the reason they got so far was because of the graveler. I never got to find out what the other boy had, but I didn't really care either. It was quickly becoming apparent that we were the two best trainers there.

The tournament progressed and eventually it came down to the finales. They announced the prizes for 1st place. A magby and 2000 crown. Steven had personally told the leaders of the tournament that he didn't want the magby, as he owned six pokemon and had no intention of getting any more. To me, though, the prospect of getting such a rare fire pokemon was exciting to say the least. I had seen three fire-types so far in the tournament alone, letting me know that they were likely fairly easy to obtain. But still, a magmortar? I could only imagine what they looked like in real life.

We were battling a boy with a black scarf and long peacoat. He had a dark look in his eye and several scars on his face, letting me know that he was an experienced trainer. His partner was a boy his age wearing a maroon coat with fur on the hood. He had it pulled up, so I couldn't see any of his features very much. They were an intimidating duo, as were their pokemon.

The first boy had a double-headed dragon with black wings and a two black feathers on each of their heads. Upon release the two heads bickered with each other, but soon settled down after a command from their trainer. The second boy had a very large raticate, it was about knee height to me, and it frightened me more than the ursaring in round 1. It's teeth were huge, and it had a murderous look in its eyes. Even Zevoa backed down slightly with a growl.

"I'll take the zweilous, you can handle a raticate, right?" I nodded and the battle commenced. Zevoa pounced on the raticate and they rolled around in a frenzy of fur and blood. A little bit of snow had showered from earlier, covering the ground with a fresh new layer that was stained red.

The luxray was doing the same with the dragon. It fired off powerful streams of blue flames at the big cat, and the attack seemed to be taking a toll on him. I could barely even gauge who was winning on Zevoa's end. They rarely broke up, all I could tell was that they were mauling the hell out of each other.

"Wild charge!" His luxray became coated in bright yellow electricity and he ran at the zweilous. It blasted purple flames at the cat, but he ran through them and tackled the dragon. It pinned the zweilous to the ground and flooded it's body with powerful electricity, but it was straining the luxray. The zweilous broke past it's shock and shot a stream of blue flames at the luxray's face, eliciting a painful hiss.

Zevoa and the raticate had broken up, both were panting hard and had missing fur all over their bodies. Zevoa had been bleeding profusely from the slashes decorating her, while the rodents ear was torn off, its tail was missing a few inches, and it had so many gashes on its body that I couldn't count them. "Zevoa, dark pulse, stay back, don't let it near you," I ordered her. I was beginning to panic. Zevoa was doing very badly, and I would lose her pretty soon. The luxray was being beaten back by the zweilous, while said dragon looked mostly fine.

"Shoot that one!" I switched tactics. She gathered energy and shot a dark pulse at the zweilous, and it did virtually no damage. It, however, did leave it open for the luxray to grab one of its necks with an ice fang and tear it away. The head squirmed as blood poured from it, and Steven gasped at his luxray. The ferocious feline dropped the head then went after the other one. "Zevoa, stop him!" I pointed at the big cat. She tackled the luxray, but it disappeared from under her and went back to Steven.

The match had paused. The dragon's trainer was tending to it, looking pretty pissed off. The raticate's trainer was administering first-aid to its wound, while Steven and I discussed his luxray going into a frenzy like how it did. "He does that sometimes…"

"He just tried to kill someone's pokemon!" I growled at Steven. He simply looked down at his feet. I didn't have a problem with killing things, Zevoa did it all the time. It was her main food source. But she never went that far.

"He's a good battler, he's strong, but he just get's carried away. I'm doing my best to help him, so get off my back, alright?" Steven hissed defensively.

"If that's how you handle it, then I'm not too sure I want you to take care of Lupe. How do I know he won't become a feral beast like that luxray?"

"He won't. Now let's get on with this." Steven released his umbreon and I growled then let out Solomon. The first guy replaced his dragon with a large white seal with a long horn on it's head. It howled upon being released, showing all of its sharp teeth. It was a dewgong. Considering the fact that it was a leopard seal, it probably wasn't very mobile in this environment.

The raticate was taken out within the first 30 seconds of round 2. It attempted to charge Solomon, but every step was met with a dozen quills in its face. It was persistent in its running, but it succumbed to poison damage before it got within two feet of the nidorino. The raticate was replaced by a powerhouse pokemon, one of the most powerful bovines the world of pokemon had to offer, tauros.

"Megahorn the umbreon," the bull's horns grew with a yellow glow. He bellowed and galloped into a shield, creating a crashing noise and cracking the blockade in front of him. The tauros backed up and charged it once more, shattering the shield.

"Feint attack," Steven ordered calmly. The umbreon was hit by the tauros, but it was revealed to be an after-image. The real Aldo appeared on top of the bovine creature and bit it's hackles. It bellowed in pain and the fox vaulted from its back and back onto the snow. The bovine stomped and dragged its hoof, preparing a charge. It was hit with a beam of multi-colored beam, causing it to tumble once it got going.

"Solomon, poison sting," he fired quills at the dewgong, but it shot them out of the air with a water gun. They continued their projectile duel before his trainer had enough and ordered a closer fight. I smirked, knowing that it was limited on land as a human would be in the ocean. The seal surrounded itself in water then lunged at Solomon. It was too fast too avoid, and he took the full weight of a full-grown seal, knocking him into the fence. I gasped in surprise, an aqua jet. He shook the water off and commenced a battle similar to a sword fight except using their horns.

"Solomon, force it back!" I told him. He was pretty skilled with using that thing, and I guessed that it was inherent in his species. I'd have to explore the concept of horn fighting more later. But right now, he was being beaten back by the dewgong due to it's massive weight behind every ram. He was better at dodging, but I noticed he wasn't as good as he previously was due to his increased size. His attacks however weren't doing as much damage because of its thick amounts of blubber, protecting it from being punctured too deeply.

"Aqua jet again, but go backwards this time, then use hydro pump," the more competent trainer yelled. As I stared at him, he slowly became more familiar. Noticing my scrutinizing, he turned to me and smirked. "I see you two have sobered up."

It was the guy who had beaten up our teams that night before. I knew he seemed familiar, but I couldn't place it because it was dark out and we were drunk at the time that it happened. Now it would make our win so much sweeter. "Today our win-loss record is gonna turn into a 1-1," I grinned. The boy laughed sarcastically and we continued bantering throughout the length of the match.

While our pokemon dueled with a mix between melee and ranged attacks, the umbreon was having a lot better luck with his opponent. He was quick and small enough that he could jump out of the way of any of the bull's attacks, and kept hitting it with confuse ray after confuse ray.

I had noticed a pattern amongst these battles so far. There would be a genuinely talented trainer, and a lesser one. It was even apparent with Steven and I. If the boy in the peacoat had a partner equally as good as he, he would've likely beaten us. His dewgong was giving me a run for my money, and he had impeccable skills when it came down to leading his pokemon, and was spitting out an order every few seconds.

The bull was taken down before the dewgong, and the match was given to us. The trainer in the peacoat strode up to us, with the same dark look in his eyes but a smile on his face. I couldn't tell whether it was genuine or just a facade, but I shook his hand regardless. "Hopefully we can have a rematch, you drunken idiot," he released my hand and trudged past us through the piling snow. A man came up to us and presented me with the magby and both of us with our prize money. Slowly people started clearing out and our past opponents bode us farewell. I looked down at my newly obtained pokemon, under normal circumstances I would've been ecstatic , but my mind was on other things.

We made our way back to the room in the gym in silence. When we finally entered the room, Steven spoke. "He's not a monster. It's in his nature. Luxray are independent creatures, they generally do what they want regardless of what you say."

"Zevoa was independent, but she never went wild like that. I mean, she's brutal, and she did try some stuff like that at first, but after a while she realized that it was just a battle, and that wasn't the purpose of it."

"She learns a lot quicker than he does. She's a pack pokemon, they are used to their being a leader in charge, and if she won't think about doing something again if you reprimand her for it the first time. Ivan and I have a mutual benefit with each other, and as much as I try to change him, he's still wild at the core," Steven got up then walked over to the sliding closet and pulled out a bag. "And since he hasn't been able to hunt, he can't release a lot of his tension. He becomes irritable, which is why I'm thinking of stopping this whole gym trainer gig. I need to focus on other goals."

"Yeah, I guess you're right. Although in our first battle she actually tore a slowpoke's tail off," his eyebrow shot up in surprise. "And in one of our fights later on she shook my nidoran like a ragdoll, well, that was before he became _my_ nidoran," I smiled at the memory. I had relaxed on the floor with a pillow under my head. "Oh, and what are these goals?"

He answered the question while he poured a bowl of dry pokemon food. "I'm thinking of becoming a ranger. I only became a gym trainer because you needed to have worked at a gym for at least 4 months before you are considered. I've been here for five," he grumbled. He released his umbreon, letting it eat the bowl of kibble, although it looked disappointed at it's meal.

"Sorry, boy, but this is what you can get for now," he scratched behind it's ears.

"Why would you wanna become a ranger? They have a pretty bad rep from what I know," I asked.

"It's pretty bad, but they are trying to change themselves. It's part of the reason I wanna join the ranks, to bring some change," he answered expertly as if he had been telling himself that for ages. He had a determined look in his eyes that told me he'd be donning the orange hat and jacket sooner or later.

For the three months I had been training, I was also doing some research. Research into the political unrest amongst the natives of Kanto. It was beginning to get out of hand. Apparently the government had given them several pieces of land to inhabit, remote islands in the middle of the ocean. They were very poor, and the people were disease-ridden and starved due to the lack of modern medicine and food. The people on the islands were caught plotting to overthrow the Kantonese government, and were promptly completely cut-off from the little assistance they had been receiving. This incited riots and made tensions even higher to the point that all the mainland-born natives were practically waging war on the government, causing rangers to have to tame the crowds with dangerous methods. Even Terry, who was a second generation-er, was attending these riots and urging me to start supporting the cause. I sympathized with them, but was too chicken-shit to risk being thrown in jail or worse for showing my support.

"It's pretty bad. Like, really bad," I stressed. I actually found myself choking on my words from a few months before, about how I said nobody was ballsy enough to tackle an entire country. Apparently, there were hundreds that were.

"And I'll do whatever I can to help. I'm actually going to take a visit to Pewter in about a week to apply. Soon I'll be Kanto Ranger Steven Hill," he beamed proudly. I was happy for him, seeing him so adamant about his dream.

"You'll be becoming a ranger and I'll be getting my second badge from Pewter, so let's go together," I suggested. Steven shook his head.

"No. I'm rusty as a field trainer, and they'll put me through a ton of battling tests to see if I'm cut-out for it. I'll need to go out and survive on my own for a while, prepare me for the tasks ahead. Sorry, but you can't come," he apologized. I sighed, partly in relief and partly from disappointment. Relief that I'd once again go back to solitude with my pokemon and I. Disappointment that I won't be able to speak to probably my most enjoyable company next to Terry, although she was all the way in Cerulean at the moment, so I doubted I'd see her any time soon.

"Well, I guess I'll leave tomorrow. Hopefully we'll see each other in Pewter, maybe you could even watch my match?" I asked hopefully.

"Yeah, maybe. But what'll you do after that? You do realize you'll have to travel through to get to Cerulean, right?"

In truth, I knew that I'd need to. The gym leader in was well into the cave, far past where I made it to, and she was a dark-type specialist. I'd need to beat her to get my 3rd badge, and that would require revisiting a lot of bad memories. "I'm ready. It's been eight months. I need to get rid of all my fear."

"No, you need fear.. Fear is what makes you human. Fear is what keeps you alive. Master it, but don't let it control you," he gave me a taste of his wisdom. Although he wasn't that much older than me, his words still held truth. With fear brings caution and knowing your limits. But too much caution and underestimating your abilities is how you become controlled by it. I needed the perfect balance.

"Thank you."

"Your welcome, now let's go to sleep. You'll need your energy tomorrow if you're gonna go back through Viridian Forest," and with that, he flipped the switch and we soon drifted off to sleep.

 **Longest chapter I've ever put out, but only for now. Also, I'm re-writing the previous chapters to make them a little more readable, but I'll still keep up regular updates. Please review, follow and favorite if you enjoyed.**


	24. Chapter 25

I was well into Viridian Forest, mindlessly walking through the forest on the now snow-covered thin dirt trail. Before we left I had bought a bigger backpack and some more supplies with my sum of money from the tournament. I was able to afford brand new clothing, a thick coat that was heat, electricity and cold resistant due to being lined with camerupt fur. It costed a bunch, but even with it, I was still able to afford a new set of black jeans and a replacement black hoodie for the one the mog gave me. I also bought a new fitted cap to replace my old one. I was looking pretty sharp for a guy who was about to trek through the wilderness.

But, most importantly, I had obtained equipment for my pokemon. TM's, healing equipment, treats for the new magby to make training him a little easier, among other miscellaneous items.

TM's were interesting. They were little discs that were inserted into the slot above the release button on a pokeball (funny, because I had always wondered what that thing was for) once you put the disc in, you had to leave the pokemon in its ball for about 5 hours. It would slightly change the pokemon's genetic makeup so that it would have the ability to learn the technique in question. I would actually have to put in some effort before the pokemon would have complete mastery over the technique.

The problem with these moves was that they were expensive. As much as I wanted to buy as many as possible, doing so would leave me with barely anything in my wallet. Instead, I took the route of buying two for everyone on my team except from the magby. I felt as Makhai needed to focus less on fighting moves and more on other types, seeing as he was going to learn plenty fighting moves in the future. I taught him Acrobatics and Double Team.

Solomon had great poison attacks, but he had a coverage problem, and he couldn't do significant damage to a lot of defensive pokemon since he almost never had an advantage over them. Case and point, Adrian's team and the dewgong belonging to the trainer we fought in the tournament. I knew that would change once he became a nidoking, but at the moment it was holding him back from reaching his true potential as a nidorino. I chose to teach him two of the more expensive moves available, thunderbolt and ice beam.

Last, but definitely not least, Zevoa. Not much was wrong with her method of offense, but I still felt the need to supplement her moveset just for the sake of fairness. I bought two moves, Mimic, which I was pretty sure wasn't a TM in the pokemon games, and Dig.

Now, I had the prospect of teaching them on my hands. Their 5 hours were all up and they had been out of their pokeballs for about 2 hours of that now. I didn't notice any signs of them using their new moves. Well, that was until Solomon sniped a pidgey out of the sky with a beam of ice coming out of his horn. The pidgey was still alive, it's wings were only slightly frosted, but it showed me that he really _was_ able to use it now. Zevoa tore into the pidgey like it was birthday cake. I had been attempting to get him to duplicate the move all day, but I got no progress.

Amari was the name I had settled upon for my magby, after my late uncle. He died way before I was born, but this could be an 'in memory of' type of thing. Amari also seemed to fit somewhat. I released him from his white pokeball with a red stripe going across the middle, it was a premier ball. He appeared startled, then blew a weak puff of smoke at me. I reached my hand towards him and he did it again, but this time it was hotter, and little sparks danced within it.

The magby was a slim duck with a crest on its head, bulbous forms protruding from the side of it. It quacked as it turned around and came face to face with a mightyena, nidorino, and mankey. It covered itself in a smokescreen and attempted to make a getaway. Makhai was already on it and had it in his hands before it even made it to the treeline. It flailed about quacking, thinking it was caught by prey before I caught it in my arms gently. I spoke to it like one would a baby while it squirmed in my embrace. I simply hugged him tighter and told him 'It's alright' and 'Shh baby.'

Eventually the magby settled into my arms and I could carry him around a lot easier. I sent off my patiently waiting pokemon to go find their own food. Zevoa took to the woods, Makhai to find winter berries and fruit, and Solomon started digging right there for roots. I watched as my rhino-like pokemon clawed through the turf with passion, and how his quills laid up against his body like they were smoothed back with hair gel. He came up with a mouth full of tubers, and it was one of the only times I was able to read happiness on his face. He chewed the delectable before continuing to dig in another location.

I rubbed the magby's head before he once more started trying to get out of my arms. He struck me with his tail and I flinched, letting him go. I expected him to run, but instead he picked up a worm from one of Solomon's holes then seared it before devouring it. I had no idea how to teach him at that point, he was so young, probably a freshly hatched duckling. He could barely use his fire techniques. He only tried to run a few more times before he settled down and stayed next to me. I also had treats in the form of dried beedrill larva. It was gross, but he loved it, and since it was winter there weren't many insects laying around for him to eat.

I commenced his training, I gave him a treat every time I saw him use smoke. I tried to make him battle a butterfree, but after shooting a little ember at it, it used gust and blew him away. He panicked and hid under my arms while I ordered Solomon to kill it.

Actually, every time he'd get hit he'd run behind my leg or jump into my arms. I guess he saw me as mother or something.

Makhai and Zevoa returned to our campsite. His stomach was bloated and I guessed he found a good stash of food somewhere in the woods. Zevoa, however, was dragging something. Something big. She had a hold on its antlers, it was a brown deer with white spots decorating it's hide. It had a big snout with a large black nose, and I recognized the species as a stantler. I had only caught a glimpse of them a few times, but I read that their psychic abilities were strong enough to kill people. Zevoa had caught and killed one, by the looks of it, by tearing open its jugular. She brought it in front of me, and I stared in amazement. I had no idea how to skin it, but the idea of such a large meal made my mouth water. I quickly got my fire together, which was fairly quick with the help of Amari. Even though his ember was small, it still was able to ignite a twig that I threw onto a pile of larger logs. I took out a brand new pot and filled it up with snow then started on trying to skin the deer.

Skinning the animal was easier than I thought, and I left the hide there and kept the antlers for later use. I could potentially sell them for extra cash later on. I, of course, left a large amount for Zevoa, and surprisingly Makhai ate some too, but only after I was done cooking. Solomon passed the meal and continued digging for his fill. It was a delicious meal, equipped with an array of tasty seasonings that made my mouth water. It was just turning dark, and I decided not to spend the night. I didn't feel the necessity to train any of my pokemon, and they would likely be slowly climbing in strength while we were traversing the woods. Amari was my main focus at that point, he didn't know how to use anything other than smoke and a pathetic amber.

I packed up the bits of deer we had left into a zip-lock bag then continued trudging along the snow-covered path. Makhai, Amari and Solomon were asleep for the night, leaving me alone time with my starter.

She stuck close to me in the night, mimicking the calls of different pokemon. The hooting of noctowl, chirping of kricketune and the occasional howl of her fellow mightyena. It was cool watching her imitate the array of wildlife. The only noise I had heard from her before was the characteristic cackle of a hyena, howling and barking. I ran my fingers through her coarse black fur as we walked.

"You're such a good pokemon…" I mumbled. She mimed my voice. I gasped and stumbled back, falling into a pile of snow. She cackled and licked my face. "I take that back," I patted the snow off and got up. We trudged along the path, me creating small talk with her and listening to her repeat it. It was kind of like a conversation, except sometimes it just sounded as if she was mocking me. Eventually, my feet got sore and I called it a night. I crawled into my sleeping bag without bothering to make a fire, and fell asleep.

 _XxXxXxXx_

The next day I switched my pokemon out, Zevoa back into her ball and Makhai, Solomon and Amari out. She was particularly tired that day as she was moving back into her nocturnal roots. I didn't mind it as long as she woke up when we were in trouble.

Makhai had taken a liking to meat, and on several occasions, attempted to eat my duckling. I could do no more than scold him, which would turn into a screaming match between us two that he would inevitably win due to me being afraid of getting my face torn off.

I figured in time the magby would be able to defend itself from attacks like that as long as I made good progress in training him. I'd needed to do research on him once I reached Pewter, but Steven said in Viridian that he was about a month old, and his fire attacks only recently started developing. In thirty months he'd be a magmar, but nobody that I spoke to knew exactly how to evolve magmar into magmortar, only the item that was used to do so.

Makhai snuck up on Amari and received an ember to his face, lighting him on fire. He ran around frantically screaming, but I decided to let him suffer, maybe then he'd stop toying with the duckling.

I was thinking of training regimens to do while my pokemon played around, something simple that they'd all understand. The first that came to mind was tag, it would increase their speed and resistance to each other's attacks. But it would be hard to teach them all the rules, since they were not very smart when it came to learning commands quickly. I decided to just do regular training against wild pokemon until I figured out what I wanted to do.

I did target practice with Solomon, Zevoa had practice with her fang techniques, and Makhai with his acrobatics and creating copies of himself with double team. Zevoa, in particular I was training to combat fighting types. It was difficult, but in her sparring matches with Makhai she took to using her sucker punches and non-dark techniques to put him down. Amari was creating stronger and larger fires as he practiced. Solomon wasn't improving or getting worse, but he had learned the command for thunderbolt. It was merely a zap, but I knew in time it would become a powerful worthwhile attack.

I received a text from Terry, I was surprised, I hadn't gotten a text from her in a few days when she usually did every morning.

 _Once you get to Pewter and beat the Gym, I can teleport you to Cerulean for a protest in front of a Ranger Station. Kanto is considering passing a bill that bans any person of Native Kantonese descent to own pokemon._

I considered it, but I denied the offer. It was bad, but I knew how bad things like that could turn with time. I didn't want to be a part of it.

 _Well, I'd be banned from training any of my pokemon too. You know why they're doing this right? It's so we can't fight back. But it's too late for that. We will._

I asked her what she meant by it's too late, but she didn't reply. I got worried. Hopefully she didn't do anything rash, but I'd be in Cerulean in about 2 weeks after I beat the gym leader in Pewter I'd immediately head towards Cerulean. Now I wanted to be there to make sure she didn't get hurt, not that she couldn't handle herself or anything.

I sped up our pace, I made about 5 miles of progress before my feet got too sore to move, then I made camp. I continued like that for about 3 more days until the forest started to fade, and I was in Pewter.

I hated the city. It was plain and it held so many bad memories for me. I walked straight to the pokemon center for the night, I planned on challenging the gym in the morning, but for now, I was tired. I thought about if I might see Raymond, but I figured probably not. He was likely too busy dealing with protesters to go on his patrols. I looked over my plans for my battle.

Zevoa, Solomon, Amari and Makhai were all laying around the room relaxing while I decided who would be effective for the battle. Makhai was the obvious choice, although rock types had very high defense, they also had a weakness to fighting moves. Makhai's fighting moves weren't that strong though, and that was the problem. Amari was still a chick, so he was basically out of the picture. Solomon had his ice beam, which I'd been honing over the last few days. He knew the command, but it was still weak. I could still use it on the part ground types on her team, though. Zevoa automatically was going to battle, since she was my starter and one of my strongest pokemon. I already knew my strategy, Solomon and Zevoa would take on the ones with the ground subtypes, Makhai would fight the ones who were pure rock or had a different subtype, and Amari would be backup just in case.

I went to sleep, rehearsing my strategy over and over again like I was counting sheep.

 _XxXxXxXx_

I strode into the gym confidently and looked around. The field was earthy, large boulders decorated it and a small pool of water sat off to the side. Towering column's of rock, some likely more than 30 feet tall. It favored rock pokemon heavily, but that didn't bother me much. A woman was leaned against the wall, she looked Asian with black hair tied into a ponytail with a trucker hat topping it. The woman was older, maybe thirty-five or something. She smiled and looked up from her phone, "Oh, you, Floyd North, I assume?"

"Uh, yeah. It's weird having people recognize me that easily. I'm guessing you heard about the thing?" I asked her while pulling out my trainer card for her to analyze. She glanced over it and gave it back.

She reached out and shook my hand, "I'm Clara Simmons, and the ranger that rescued you, he's a personal friend of mine. I heard about it before anyone else did," she grinned. Her voice was a little raspy, and judging by her appearance you wouldn't guess that she held such a high position of power. She wore a form-fitting navy blue jacket with a pale yellow t-shirt underneath. Apparently the dress code for gyms was none existent. "So, a gym battle? How many pokemon will you be using?"

"Four," I drew my first ball and stepped on my square. She ambled over to her side and shouted the rules, but I was going over her potential pokemon in my head, possible movesets, etc while she dug around in a box that was held by a random intern.

By the time she was finished finding her pokemon I was still in my thoughts. I barely even noticed that her first pokemon had been out for a few seconds. I threw out Zevoa's pokeball, and she appeared cackling at her opponent.

It was a familiar toad pokemon, two strong arms and no back legs. It had crusty skin that didn't produce poisons or slime like many other amphibian creatures, it was hard to protect against attacks. A geodude.

"Zevoa, ice fang," I ordered. She darted up to the geodude and shook it with frosted over fangs. They pierced it's shell, going straight to it's brain, knocking it out. The leader looked surprised at the quick win, but I wasn't. Zevoa was used to fighting those things, and she was strong enough that she could knock out one twice as strong with the same technique.

"Alright then, I can already tell how this'll go. Come on out, Obsidian," she released her follow up pokemon. I nearly had a heart attack. It was a fifteen-foot long rock snake with row's razor sharp fangs lining its mouth. It bellowed, causing me to quack in my boots. Zevoa growled with her ears pinned to her head, her last encounter with one of these things resulted in her near-death. She was probably terrified as I was. "Burrow, girl," she ordered it. It-she, went straight through the turf like a hot blade through butter, a testament to its raw strength. I had taught her that move, and her ability to learn it granted her a small level of seismic sensitivity, meaning she could sense where it would come up at.

I didn't need to tell her to dodge when it erupted from the ground. She was already on the other side of the field by the time it fully emerged. It roared again. Its roar wasn't as loud, and its body wasn't as long as the monster that killed Jerry, but it terrified me. The leader wasn't in the least bit scared of the creature, though. She actually had a look of awe as it battled. I couldn't imagine how scared I looked.

"Dragon breath, bathe her, that mightyena is his strongest pokemon," she ordered her onix. Zevoa, however, was probably not my strongest. They were definitely all equal to the point that you couldn't tell who was more powerful. The onix obeyed without question, and a jet of purple flames washed over the field. Zevoa surprised me, she countered the attack with her own stream of dragon fire. They each pushed their attack's to the strongest possible, but hers became just as powerful as the snakes. "Stop! It's mimicking you!" The onix abruptly halted its move but was bathed by its own imitation inferno. It screeched, causing my ears to feel like they were on fire.

The onix brought its tail back for a swing, but Zevoa disappeared just as it connected. She appeared on its head, then I smiled. "Ice fang!" Her incisors froze over and she chomped down on its horn. The snake bellowed as a spider web of cracks ran down the sensitive horn. It drove its own head into the ground to stop the pain, and I heard a crack as Zevoa was crushed under its weight.

"Zevoa!" I ran onto the field. The onix looked down on me indifferently as I passed. I looked at the crater were Zevoa lay still. I pointed my pokeball at her. She was absorbed into the ball with a red beam. I let out a breath that I hadn't realized I was holding and held my chest. "That was close…" I mumbled as I walked back to my side.

"Uh, you okay, Floyd?" She asked me from across the field.

"Yeah...I'll be fine," I said with a fake smile. In reality, I had almost had a heart attack. I let out Solomon, deciding to save Makhai for later. "Shoot it!" The leader's eyes widened, and she ordered her onix to maneuver it. A barrage of quills hit the onix in the face, each landing square on their large target.

"Stone edge," the leader ordered. I gasped, knowing that it was a very strong rock type attack and Solomon wouldn't see it coming. It slammed its tail onto the ground, causing the whole building to shake. Several stone spikes erupted from the earth around him. Solomon dodged two of them, but one hit him through the leg. It tore through the meat and he hissed and screeched in pain. He blasted a beam of ice, shattering the infernal stone spear. He was pissed.

His mood, as typical from nidorino, got sour after his evolution. He wasn't as easily angered as other members of his species, but if he got hit hard by something or surprised then he'd rampage. He blasted a steady beam of ice at the onix's horn. It roared in pain, but as it flailed, Solomon kept following it with his beam. It's horn shattered off.

"Obsidian, another dragon breath!" The leader ordered frantically, but it was going to lose this battle. The dragon breath made contact and severely crippled Solomon. He was still standing based off the sheer strength of his own rage. He charged the onix, even with his severely damaged leg, and drove his horn straight through one of it's boulders. It roared again, and I noticed Solomon wasn't pulling his horn out. The wound started frosting over, then it clicked. He was using ice beam with his horn _in the onix._

Before it could be fatal, Clara withdrew her onix. She put on a serious expression as she released her next pokemon. It didn't look half as threatening as the onix, but it was big enough that I wouldn't want to fight it. It was a large turtle-like pokemon, four arms, and rough crusty skin. A graveler.

It dawned on me that I actually defeated an onix with relative ease and no one on my team suffered catastrophic injuries. I was quite proud on myself.

Solomon was injured but he was still strong enough to weaken it. I couldn't risk Makhai not being able to beat it at full health then get knocked out by the next pokemon.

"Rock throw," she ordered. The rock turtle scooped up a rock and chucked it at Solomon, who shattered it with an ice beam. It was becoming increasingly evident how useful it was to have a large movepool. It lifted four others, one for each hand, and threw them with a surprising accuracy at Solomon. He shot one and dodged another, but was struck by the other two. He was shook up. "Magnitude," she smirked. It stomped its foot, and Solomon backed down with a hiss. A column of rocks toppled on Solomon. He luckily didn't get crushed by it, but dodging was probably hard with a hole through the leg. I needed to switch tactics.

"Ice beam, then poison sting, and don't stop!" He blasted it in the face with a beam of ice and followed that up with several quills to it's face.

Rush it fast!" Clara yelled. The graveler couldn't find an opening. Whenever it reached for a rock, it got it's hand blasted. "Use protect, _then rush_ _it_ ," she sighed. It put up a translucent barrier then retracted it's arms and legs while simultaneously bringing down the barrier. It made its way straight through the field, breaking down columns of rock and forcing it's way through the ponds and rough terrain of the gym.

I panicked, and Solomon froze up. "Keep shooting it, slow it down!" I screamed frantically. His beams of ice were strong, but inaccurate. Some of them hit the ground in front of it, redirecting it's path, buying us more time to shoot it.

"Uncurl yourself, then start again," I realized something, it couldn't change direction while it was moving. So if I could keep doing that, it would have to resort back to it's normal form then retract it's limbs again to keep going. Since it's head and arms were exposed, it was also easier to deal damage.

So for the next five minutes Solomon shot the turtle with ice beam after ice beam, until it finally went down. That was the difference between wild and trained pokemon, a wild one wouldn't have taken me any more than a few minutes to beat. A gym trained graveler was a force to be reckoned with, though. Her next pokemon wasn't any different, a pokemon I had seen once before. A black dinosaur with a steel hide dotted with black markings, and piercing blue eyes. It roared furiously, Solomon and I both backed down from the beast. He was looking terrible, dirty, a ton of missing quills, and his horn had a crack running down it. He couldn't fight that thing even if he was at perfect health, it was a lairon, steel and rock type with high defenses.

But, being a steel type had disadvantages. "Amari, let's go!" I tossed his premier ball. The gym leader's eye's widened a bit at the ball in question. Maybe it was a sign of power to have a ball like that, but she smirked once she saw the pokemon it belonged to. The duckling made a horrible sound, like a quack and the hiss of a snake. Fire licked from his mouth, and for a second, he looked intimidating. Alas, he stood a mere foot tall, and at the end of the day, he was a duck.

I hadn't expected much from him, but I wasn't disappointed by his performance. "Ember, Amari!" I had to remind him every match that I was giving him _specific_ directions by saying his name, otherwise he wouldn't listen. He blasted the lairon with small fireballs in the face. It shook off the damage and charged Amari. He scattered out of the way of the several hundred-pound beast and continued blasting it with fire as he danced around it. "Yeah, keep it up!" I cheered. He quacked in response, this time it wasn't scary so much as it was cute.

The lairon roared, freezing Amari, and admittedly myself, in place. It was likely irritated by the assault, as was its trainer. "Earthquake," Clara screamed. I almost returned Amari right there, knowing that such a powerful move could have potentially lethal effects. "But don't over do it, just a little one," the lairon stomped, and the ground splintered. A crack formed through it, and Amari dropped inside. It started rapidly closing, it would squish him. I sighed and returned him.

"Makhai, it's your time to shine," I knew the outcome of this fight. The lairon didn't stand a chance against the maneuverable monkey. Too slow, no special attacks, and the handicap of a four times weakness to fighting moves. He acrobatically flipped on top of it. It bucked wildly, but was forced to take the beating that ensued. Cracks formed on its hindquarters, it bellowed in pain, but I wasn't worried. It's metal would likely form together again after this battle, and its defense were too high to be damaged so easily this early in the fight. It was eventually successful in bucking him off. They stared each other down with equally angry eyes.

"Another earthquake, and make it big!" Clara roared as fiercely as her lairon. The ground shook, I toppled within the first few shakes. The earth split in two, then four, and eventually I couldn't count the cracks. Makhai evaded them by hopping, but he couldn't land without one forming a second after. We needed to end it soon otherwise he wouldn't have any solid ground to stand. "Try a double team," I said nervously. I had only successfully seen him use it once, and his clones would fade after 10 seconds, otherwise they'd fizzle as soon as they were hit. It was enough time to confuse it, at least. He landed close to the lairon and three clones appeared as he did. You could see where they appeared, so he wasn't fooling any one as to who the real Makhai was. He then ran around the lairon, switching places with the clones to confuse it.

It used a stone edge that erupted spears of earth underneath the clones, hitting the two fake ones. It was an opening for the real Makhai to leap onto his back and deliver the final blow, which he previously wasn't able to do without getting smacked by rocks or sunken into a

She returned the lairon and stomped three times. A plant-like creature snaked out from under the ground just past the white line marking where the battle area was. It shook it's pink tentacles without making a noise, the cracks caused by the quake formed together and smoothed out, making the field look undisturbed. Then it used a rock attack to rebuild the columns of rock that had collapsed. After another command by its trainer, the monstrous plant burrowed back into it's hole. I shivered at the creepy pokemon, I couldn't exactly figure out what it was though.

Clara strode over the battlefield to me. The match was easier than I thought it would be, but I was proud of my accomplishment nevertheless. "Second gym badge, you're making a bit of progress now. Fifteen more to go," she patted me on the cheek and ruffled my hair, although it wasn't very neat in the first place.

I wiped the sweat from my brow, "It took me twice to beat Adrian, so I figured you'd be twice as hard."

"Adrian is usually easy if you have the right moves and pokemon. I saw your fight with him, you could've trained a bit more and you would've beat him your first time. Of course, he was pulling out the stops," she smiled.

"Pulled out the stops, so wait, it's usually not that hard?" I asked confusedly.

"Yeah, if a gym leader sees potential in you, sometimes they'll use a team they deem to be on your level. He did that by going straight into the battle with his second badge team, and you did pretty well. Usually that means the next gym leader would have to use their third badge team, so on so fourth. But I didn't think you were ready to keep going against challenges that are so consistently above you. It's good every now and then, but if you continuously fail, then you'll quit. I didn't want to keep pushing you until you fell, so I toned it down with a team that was directly on your level," she explained.

"So, if you would've used your third badge team and I actually beat it, then I'd be a three badge level trainer with two badges?" I inquired.

"Eh, kind of, but not exactly. You need to actually have the badge to convince anyone of that," she said. That would be a complete contradiction to what Adrian said, that a badge didn't signify power, your skill as a trainer did. I told her this and she laughed.

"You can believe that if you want to, but there is a reason gym's exist. If you battled a leader and didn't get the badge, you didn't get the badge, period. There is no dancing around your loss with lame excuses like 'Well, I came _this_ close,'" she gestured with her index finger and thumb a few centimeters apart.

I took her advice, no matter how much it differed with Adrian's, to heart. If that was the philosophy that got her a position as gym leader, who was I to judge?

"Hey, I have one more question before I go."

"Shoot," she made a mock gun gesture.

"Why don't more people watch battles? I figured more people would," I asked. She had already given me her badge, it was silver with an octagon shape in the center. Adrian's badge in contrast was a simple brown circle bisected by meridian lines into four segments.

"Not many people want to watch fights between weak teams, simply put. Once last stage pokemon start popping up, gyarados, charizard, steelix, then they'll start buying tickets just to see the sheer atrociousness of the pokemon involved. You'll see, once that nidorino evolves, people will be lining up in the dozens, if not hundreds to see'em."

"What's the largest crowd you've garnered?"

"You said one more question, but I'll let it slide," she smirked with her straight and perfect white teeth. "I fought an Elite Four member, just for fun, and we got about 1500 people watching. We got giant stands to line up around the inside of the gym, the battlefield was so close to the seating area that we had to have psychic type's on the sidelines put up reflects and lightscreen so the crowd didn't get turned to mush. That was about a year ago," she said with a nostalgic glint in her eye that told me she was very fond of the memory. "Some people get thousands more than me and they have to hold the events outdoors."

"Although that'll never happen to me if I stand around here asking questions. I'll have to learn some thing's myself. I guess goodbye, Clara?"

"Get out of here," she laughed while pointing to the door. I nodded and we parted ways after she gave me a good luck and my winnings, the information would be nice to know in the future, so I gave her thanks for it. Two badges, I was beginning to be a decent trainer.

There was a problem, however. It was a big one. A huge crowd was gathered, not directly in front of the gym, but the building on the corner. It read **'PEWTER CITY RANGER DEPARTMENT'** and I immediately knew what they were there for.

A group of men in orange hats and jackets were grouped on each side of the protest group, which I noticed was mostly darker skinned individuals. They had pokemon out on both sides, and some were scattered in the crowd too. Clara came rushing out of her gym, then immediately took action with a giant steel plated snake coming out of the brick road in the center of the protesters.

That turned the protest into a riot, and they became violent. Fire struck the steelix, jets of water blasted it, and lightening struck it. The ranger's took action, furthering the situation past the point of no return. I got to see first hand how the Kanto racial relations were going, right then.

 **Please review, favourite, follow if you enjoyed.**


	25. Chapter 26

"Everyone stay _calm_ ," a man spoke through a megaphone. He had an arcanine standing next to him. Larger than Bailey, scars riddled it's body like it was a scratching post. It had a missing eye and a chipped fang, but it was barking so ferociously that it made no difference the amount of teeth it retained, you'd probably get torn in half either way. The protesters, or rioters, didn't get any calmer at the man's words. They chanted things like 'justice' and 'retribution.' I wasn't too sure on what they were angry about this time, but it was likely justified if what I'd been reading was truthful in any way.

Clara had ran straight through the crowd on the back of a pokemon that looked like a giant shield. It was a dinosaur on four strong steel legs. It was plowing through the people. Not harming them, just knocking the out of the way. She headed past her steelix, it was slamming pokemon with its powerful tail, probably crushing most of them. Dead bodies scattered around the brick road. You almost couldn't see them from how people were trampling over them. They moved in unison. They didn't hurt each other. They were all pushing toward a common goal.

I had one healthy pokemon on me, well, other than Amari. But I wasn't sure if Makhai would handle well with all of the loud noises. I kept them both in and worked my way through the crowd. I was kind of glad that was a darker skin tone, probably from my more Spanish roots, I blended in easier the way I looked. I pulled my hat down to cover my eyes and pulled my hoodie up. My knife was in my hand just in case, although I doubted anyone would harm me on this side of the fence. Or should I say blockade.

Clara was beating up people with her bare hands, shouting curse words as she beat back the crowds. Someone struck her with a crowbar straight to her back. The man got his leg snapped by a ball of light from the bastiodon. He screamed as he went down, but she looked down on him heartlessly and continued her assault on the people.

I released Amari and Makhai to help me even though I didn't really want to. Makhai couldn't tell who was who, but he was still doing his best to trip up people and prevent them from stopping my movement towards the blockade. I wanted to leave, I didn't want to be apart of that whole thing. I didn't have a side, I wasn't involved in any way.

Rangers were working their way through the crowd with rifles and large pokemon by their side. They were clipping people left and right with rubber bullets. The people were armed the same way, pokemon, rifles, pistols. But they had real bullets. "Ranger down! You're free to take lethal force," the authoritarian figure on the podium commanded the officers behind him. They leaped into action, they sprayed the crowd with poisonous gases and the stragglers were viciously attacked by ranger pokemon.

I was in that crowd. I was coughing and gagging, Makhai and Amari were fending off a beedrill from me. My eyes watered, I tripped over bodies on my way away. I smashed by nose into something. I could barely see it, but if I focused I noticed that it was purple. Psychics stood on the outside with glowing eyes. A few dark pokemon were rushing through the barriers and tackling them, but they were all taken out before they got far enough to actually do something. I would've had Zevoa join them, but I didn't want to risk my already injured pokemon getting killed by the rangers.

"Makhai, Amari," I yelled at them between coughs. They had killed the beedrill and were focusing their efforts on a raticate. They appeared by my side in a flash. I covered by mouth with my shirt and ordered them to stay close. I returned my pokemon and collapsed on top of a young man's body. I kept my face hidden, but I watched as the last stragglers went down to the gas. The barriers fell and rangers flooded in, picking up and cuffing people before guiding them to large vans for transfer. I looked around for an exit as aloof as possible, then when everyone's backs were turned, I dashed.

"Young man! Freeze!" Bullets clapped against my back as I ran. I tripped, but I kept running. I released Amari to shoot back at them with his embers, buying me time. He was on my shoulder covering me as I sprinted. Clara shouted at me to stop, but I kept going despite the aching echoing across my body. I was fueled by adrenaline, my vision might as well have been red. I might as well have been Makhai.

I ran down the street and took a left into an alley. Trash and debris was scattered, it smelled heavily of piss. I grabbed the nearest blunt object, a wooden slab leaning against a dumpster. An arm touched my shoulder and turned around and used my momentum to smash them across the head with the weapon. The slab shattered across their skull, and I was punched in the gut. I heaved and dropped to my knees and Amari jumped off my shoulder. He blasted the man with a jet of fire stronger than the normal ones he produced. The man backed off while screaming and clutching his hand.

He was tall and pale. He wore a grimy coat that covered a rather out-of-shape body. He wasn't a ranger, why was he attacking me?

"Damn you people. Ruining city after city. After all this country has done for you!" He snarled. Amari hissed at the man, flames licking from his beak.

I held my chest to try and control my rapid heart rate. "I don't know who you are! I have nothing to do with this!" I gripped my hoodie and balled my other hand into a fist.

"You lier! All you people are liars! You should go turn yourself in before you incite another-"

"Shut up!" I turned tail and ran, but I crashed head-on into another man. He was fat, but I didn't get to make out any other features before I was decked in the jaw. I wasn't knocked out, so I had Makhai out as soon as I could. He frenzily attacked the fat-man while Amari burned the other. I ran until I was at the end of the alley and called for my pokemon. They stopped what they were doing and ditched their victims. Yes, victims. One was burned all over his body and the other had so much blood on him that I couldn't tell where the wounds even started; I think they deserved the title.

I went around the corner and into a large vacant apartment complex through the steel back door. I understood why it was condemned. The steps were caved in, the checkered floors were scratched from the years of punishment they endured. Some of the walls were slightly charred as if they had been a fire. The steps to my right weren't an option. I wasn't sure if I could make it up without getting even more injuries than before. Straight ahead there was another door that read 'Employees Only,' in permanent marker. I cautiously walked up to the door and pushed it open, rattata flowed out in the dozens, and a horrid stench of rotten food escaped. I slammed the door and looked for another exit. To my left was the main entrance, but it was boarded up to the point that I doubted I'd be able to get through without causing some large ruckus.

I moved to push larger objects such as desks and a mini-fridge up against the back entrance. I released the rest of my team, Zevoa and Solomon, so I could administer some first-aid to their injuries they sustained during the gym battle.

I could see an indent in Zevoa's chest that told me she had a broken rib or two. Her fur was singed, showing the grey skin underneath. Solomon's leg was his biggest problem, although it could be fixed a lot easier than any of her injuries, but I'd have to be quick.

I bandaged up his leg with the very few supplies I had in my small backpack. My bigger one was left in my room at the pokemon center, as I didn't feel like lugging it around during my battle. It contained most of my more crucial medical supplies. I had to make due with the ones I had on me.

I bought a chansey egg steroid that was supposed to reduce inflammation and make breathing easier for the pokemon or human in question. Since it was just a needle, I could carry it around easier by just placing it in a baggy. I injected it to the area of her rib cage, in my world broken ribs took weeks to heal, but her rib would heal in about seven to ten days depending on how serious it was. Solomon's leg required some bandaging and a disinfectant, but he could walk on it better than before.

I treated the minor injuries Makhai and Amari had, then I got back to watching the doors. I sent my pokemon to watch every other entrance, and Makhai to go upstairs and see if there were any people. He could climb the banister to get up there, so he wasn't in danger of hurting himself. If I heard screams, then I'd be correct in my assumption that there would be some homeless people in the abandoned apartment.

Minutes passed with an eerie silence, no knocking, no shouting from outside. I doubted those two men would keep pursuing me after what I did to them, but I could never be too safe. I explored the lower level of the building to see if I could spot some useful items, but I came up empty handed. They had already cleared out the whole place months ago.

I ran my fingers through Zevoa's fur to keep my fingers busy while I thought about what had just happened. I was caught up in a protest that turned into a riot, rangers got the situation under control relatively quickly as soon as violence ensued, I was mistakenly taken for one of the rioters, I was shot several times by rubber bullets, I was then mistooken for a rioter and attacked by racists, and now I was here. All the while I had no idea what the hell they were even angry about. I took out my phone and called Terry, hoping for some answers. She answered after the second ring.

"Hello, chicken-shit."

"Terry, this is no time for name calling."

"I call it like I hear it. You don't think anyone has the balls to do what needs to be done, but people like _you_ aren't exactly helping that. So, what's up?" she said the last part nonchalantly.

"Racial tension is 'what's up.' I was mistaken for one of you guys," I said with more venom than I intended. Most of angry tone was attributed to the fact that I had giant bruises on my back and my throat felt like I swallowed a cactus.

She feigned sniveling over the phone, "Oh boohoo, the _tyranny_ to be labelled as such a thing."

"You know that's not what I meant. Them thinking I was a native or whatever could've gotten me killed or arrested."

Silence hung in the air for a few seconds before she replied, "You're talking about the riots in Pewter."

"Uh, duh. Finally I got it through your-"

"They are rioting over _you."_

I paused. I was attempted to piece together exactly what she meant by what she said. Over _me_?

"That incident with the onix was a huge story on the local Pewter news, it stirred up some controversy on how that ranger allowed you to even enter the cave in the first place. Along with you almost being killed, neither of those two boys were informed of the dangers of before they entered. You would be a little more mentally stable, those two boys would be alive, and Jerry wouldn't have been killed by the onix if the rangers had taken an extra step to prevent people like you from entering."

"Well they weren't making a big deal about it before, so why now? It's been months since that incident happened," I asked.

"It's not only the tragedy of what happened, it's how they portrayed it. They made it out like Raymond was the hero and you all were just a bunch of stupid little kids. Evidence surfaced about how you went back to the cave with him, his froslass sustained injuries by your mightyena, psychic's traced dark energy there. They knew you had went twice, but the rangers didn't make a move to stop you either of the times. He only killed the onix when it was convenient for him to take all of the credit for it, he pushed you out of the city so that you wouldn't talk about what really happened. He rescued a lost trainer and avenged two people in the process, he's a local hero around there. But too bad that we have pokemon that can tell us _exactly_ what happened there," I could sense the condescension in her voice towards the end of her explanation.

"Can you confirm this story?" She asked me.

"Partially. But I didn't know about all that stuff about him craving the hero status he apparently gained from him killing the onix."

"So you were there in the riots and you got hurt, how bad was it?"

"I was shot several times, everyone else got knocked out by gas and at worst was broken in one way or another," I recalled.

"Wait, _shot_? You're okay, right? I didn't think they'd take it that far-"

"I'm fine, they were rubber bullets. They hurt like _hell_ though," I hissed when I was reminded of the pain.

There was yelling behind me coming from the other side of the door. A muffled deep voice said 'he's in there, ranger,' before being dismissed by someone I guessed was the ranger in question. "Shit, I'll call you back, Terry," I hung up and turned off the phone. Zevoa got tense under my hand as I gripped her fur instinctively. She struggled to her feet and heaved. She snarled at the door with her ears pinned to her skull. "Get ready guys," I told my pokemon who gathered around me.

Banging followed shortly after the snitch told the ranger my whereabouts. "Ranger, open up!" He ordered. I ran to the front of the apartment and looked between the wood planks covering it, there was nobody in the front. I guess they figured that I wouldn't be able to go through the front anyway.

"Makhai, tear the wood off. Zevoa, help him out. Be quiet though," they went to work on the wood while Amari and Solomon stood ready for anyone that might've been alerted by the small amounts of noise they were producing.

Soon, the wood was gone and I broke down the door they were protecting. Outside there were people fighting, a lot of pokemon involved. Not just the weaker ones that the protesters had, these were fully evolved. A darker-skinned man shot a pistol at the rangers and a large-yellow gorilla blasted a thunderbolt from its palm into at a pidgeot. It's muscles seized and it dropped from about thirty feet in the air on it's neck.

To my left the rangers that were banging on the back door ran went around the apartment through the alley I went into it in and joined the fray. My whole team ganged up on whatever pokemon approached us. I made sure to move away from the fight, but not too fast as to look suspicious. "Hey, kid, who's side are you on?"

I turned around to meet the person, Zevoa growled at him and Solomon lowered his horn. "Whoa, whoa. You don't look like a ranger," a younger boy with a blue thermal and thick black wool jacket. His eyes were deep and sunken into his caramel colored skin, his mouth pressed into a scowl, but I doubted that it was directed towards me.

"I'm not, but I'm not one of you either. I didn't _mean_ to be apart of this," I gestured toward the fighting going on. I was ducking slightly to avoid my skull getting smashed, my face burned, or exploded in the crossfire. "I _hate_ this city. Every time I come here something bad happens."

The boy's hazel eyes widened and his jaw dropped. "You're that one guy!" He pointed at me. I sighed, the woes of being a celebrity. If the circumstances behind my fame were a little less gruesome than I might've been happy about it. "We need you on the frontlines, you have a strong enough team to-"

"I said _no!_ " I barked. The boy shrank back, but not because of me, but because of the growl Zevoa made to emphasize my words. "I-I don't want anything bad to happen to any of you guys, but I don't want to be apart of it. I just want to go about my business," I said calmly, switching my tone from angry to indifferent.

"You ran from the rangers, and as far as they know, you're on our side. You can attempt to remain neutral, but that's not how they'll see it," the boy spoke. The sounds of combat and screams echoed all around us, but we talked to each other as if none of that existed.

I called off Zevoa, "They can think that all they want, I'm even inclined to say that I _support_ you. But I will not act on it unless mine or my team's health is in immediate danger," I turned to walk away at that, but the boy persisted.

"Well right now, if you don't help us, they will still be targeting you. Maybe not actively trying to incapacitate you, but your life won't be the same after today," he said with finality. I turned back around to counter his argument, but he was gone. I saw the boy appear behind a ranger with a bat in his hands and clubbed the man in the skull. I knew the rangers sported a helmet under their cap which was made of thick leather, but it probably still hurt like hell. The boy disappeared again with a flash of light and appeared again behind another ranger, rinse and repeat.

My heart drummed in my chest from the amount of action going down on the road. On one side there were men in orange, the rangers with stronger pokemon and more training. The other side were the disorderly native-people, with their weaker pokemon but larger numbers. It was a stalemate, the ones who were on the rioters side were the people who had done the same as I to escape from the psychic barrier. The one leading them was the dark-skinned man with the electabuzz. He was taking an aggressive approach with the power of his side, but he was the only competent one with them. With time, once reinforcements arrived for the rangers, all those people would be arrested. I had no idea what would come after that, but I knew that some of them were my age, and they'd probably get off easy. The guys that had actively been attacking rangers themselves would likely be in prison for _years_. They were arguably victims, their families trapped in the Sevii Islands with very poor nutrition and terrible living conditions. On the mainland they were being treated like second-class citizens, an entirely different set of laws applied to them. They were fighting for their rights for which they desperately deserved.

I chose a side. I took a bandana from inside of my backpack and wrapped it around the bottom half of my face so they wouldn't know my identity. I took off my camerupt wool coat and threw it to the brick street, leaving me wearing only my hoodie. I put up my hood to even further obscure my face and I joined the fight. I took out pokemon rather than rangers, disarmed the rangers of their protective gear by setting fire to it with Amari's abilities. Without their protective gear, they were more vulnerable to attack.

"Solomon, ice beam, but aim for those!" I pointed at their rifles. He blasted each one of the weapons one by one, sometimes hitting their hands. "Makhai, aim for ankles and shins, break them if you have to, if you see something is coming for you, don't risk it, leave," I gave him more specific commands because I knew he could understand them clearer.

"Zevoa-" I started but when my eyes met what was happening, I cut myself off. She was fighting a gang of smaller pokemon off with the limited strength she had by utilizing her sucker punch and mimic. She mimicked a raichu's thunderbolt and redirected it at a pelipper, knocking it out. I ordered Amari to stop burning the jackets and pointed at the gang of pokemon that outnumbered Zevoa seven-to-one and climbing. "Cover her, use ember, Amari," I said while I ran off. I spotted a ranger and kicked his feet from under him. I stomped his stomach twice then kicked his chin, knocking him out. In retrospect, I could've just knocked him over then chin-checked him, but it was the heat of the moment, y'know?

I was lifted up by a pink otter with glowing blue eyes. It tossed me a dozen feet away and I landed, thankfully, on my feet. I dashed the slowpoke and got hit in the face by a shot of water. I coughed and gagged while wiping my face off with my bandana, lifting it up to clean my eyes out. The slowpoke took the opportunity to hit me with another psychic wave of energy, and I skidded on the street on my back. I cursed at the pain of road burn, but I got up nonetheless. I was about twenty feet from it, but I couldn't cover that distance quick enough to attack it. I ran the opposite direction toward a fallen ranger who's arm was twisted at an awkward angle. Next to him was a rifle that I hoped had rubber ammunition. From what I saw of them using the guns, they didn't have too much recoil. I picked it up then aimed and fired at the slowpoke. I blasted the slowpoke in between the eyes, resulting in a crack that echoed down the streets. The slowpoke rolled with the impact, but it's skull looked like it was still intact.

Zevoa and Amari successfully took down a group of pokemon, they went as far as mutilating and killing a few. I noticed that a lot of the pokemon weren't fully evolved, I figured that some of these people were newer recruits. I didn't realize their numbers were dwindling to that extent.

Thunderbolts, hyper beams and fire blasts were flying around waiting to make contact with something to tear apart. The boy was in a fist fight with a ranger and was losing. A tall platypus creature with a whip-like tail stood beside the boy, bleeding profusely from a stomach wound. It's teal body was riddled with bruises. Clara arrived on the head of a steelix that the golduck was hitting with a continuous stream of water. It slammed its powerful steel tail at cars and sent them flying at our side to hit people and pokemon indiscriminately. Boulders the size of coffee-tables were flying at the steelix but they were caught in its maw and crushed. The steelix lowered its humongous head so that Clara could jump off. She held a beautiful golden sword with a purple aura and serrated edge. She had shield in her right hand that was also glowing purple, but it was a rustier color and swirl patterns. I saw Makhai in my peripheral run towards her. He hopped in the air and aimed a fist at her head. She blocked the punch with her shield and didn't move an inch. He continued his barrage of attacks but failed to land a single successful hit. He was silenced by a swipe of her sword. He was knocked into the air a few feet. He wasn't knocked out, but he was dazed. All the while Clara maintained an angry glower at me.

"Floyd, call off this whole thing, and you might get away from this in one piece," she threatened. I could hear her clearly past the sounds battle, and the intent in her voice.

"I would-but I'm not the one in charge," I yelled back at her. I was trying to figure out how she knew who I was despite my disguise. I trained my rifle on her and fired, but the rubber bullet impacted with the shield and bounced off.

She swung her sword and a slash of dark energy echoed from it. The slash of darkness came at me as quick as she swatted the weapon at me, but I sidestepped it then looked over my shoulder to see it cut the tail off a thick hooded-purple snake. It hissed and flailed, but was silenced with another slash. It's head was separated from its body.

"You just deliberately killed that pokemon!" I screamed at her. I had no qualms about killing, but to see that arbok's trainer crying over his pokemon gave me flashbacks. I charged her, and she pointed at me with the sword. A ball of purple energy the size of a basketball formed at the tip of the blade and shot me in the chest. It was like a strong push that made me smack the brick road onto my back. Zevoa materialized next to the gym leader and pounced for her. Her jaws snapped around the shield. Clara lifted all one hundred something pounds worth of hyena off the street with one arm then slammed her onto the brick road. The sword and shield had to have been enchanted in some way, but I couldn't tell how. All I knew was that such a small woman shouldn't have been able to do that. Zevoa whined and heaved before she was slashed by the sword and sent flying twenty feet.

I unloaded the rifle onto Clara but her sword and shield were able to tank the barrage of bullets that smacked them. "Hey, you!" I called at the boy who was on top of a ranger beating his face in. I nodded toward Clara and he called his pokemon over to him. The golduck was preoccupied so it was substituted by a cerulean colored lizard with a three ridges on its head that flared in sync with its breathing. A pitcher plant with a pink rim resembling lips slithered over on it's vines until it was next to its trainer. In the time it took for the plant to get to him, Amari and Solomon were both at my side.

"Let's give it everything we've got," I told the boy. He nodded.

"What made you change your mind?" He asked.

"I'd like to know too. You didn't seem so militant, I never heard of you ever protesting for this particular cause," Clara chimed in.

"This, this is what is right," I said. My pokemon were all ready to go, so were the boys'. Clara only had two, the sword, which I guessed was enhanced with the energy of some pokemon somewhere, and the steelix, who towered over us and took up most of the road even with its lower half coiled up.

"Oh really? Because that's not what I think. I think you all are just rebelling against the government despite our best efforts to please you. It was unfair what we did to you, and if you want to protest it then do it peacefully, instead of doing this," she gestured to the fighting around us.

"My family brought me to this country illegally so I could have a _future_ , one that they never got. Those islands are _hell_. You dumped us on the worst piece of land Kanto had to offer, and you think we should be _grateful_?" He screamed at her passionately. "I could _die_ fighting for this, maybe not now, but for the justice my family deserves? Nobody will get in my way," he snarled the last part before charging Clara. His pokemon followed him, the little lizard and Makhai went for her legs while Amari, Solomon and the pitcher plant attempted to bathe her with fire and poisons that she was working on avoiding. She pressed a button on the bandolier that hung off her shoulders and an ultraball was sent flying to the ground a dozen feet away. With a flash of light an insect with armor resembling a halloween skeleton suit stood with two giant scythes in place of hands. It was dashed at the pokemon by Clara's feet while she struggled to run away from the two that were practically trying to tear them off. It plunged its scythes into the brick road and a giant stone barrier separated Clara from the battlefield.

The pitcher plant was the first to get attacked. It's body was slashed; but not in half, before it was soccer kicked into a building. The victreebel caught itself using a vine to dig into the street to stop mid-air. It sling shot itself into the kabutops and cracked one of its ribs. The pitcher plant wrapped its vines around the arthropod and plunged the tentacles into its back. The kabutops screeched as its health was sapped by an absorb before it was able to free itself and push back the victreebel with a water gun.

Solomon assaulted it with a weak thunderbolt but was shut up by an explosion of earth underneath him. He flew into the air then was hit again by a water gun. He was knocked out. I returned him so he didn't have to endure any more pain.

"We need to get out of here," I yelled as I ducked a water gun aimed at my face.

"What about Clara?"

"She's the only one that recognizes me, I'm guessing because of my voice, but I'm not sure if she knows who you are, especially in the heat of battle. Let's beat this thing and leave as quick as possible and we _might_ not be hunted down afterward."

"Sounds good, you don't have priors or anything? She said you weren't known for doing stuff like this, and this is my second time, but the first wasn't as violent," he said. I shook my head and ran over to another unconscious ranger body to pick up his rifle.

"You should get one of these," I recommended. The boy nodded and went off to find one, leaving me and a combination of our pokemon to fight the kabutops. I blasted the thing; it wasn't quick enough to dodge the rubber bullets, not that it needed to. It took each attack head-on, I didn't hit the joints, its thick skull simply deflected the rubber ammo like they were spitballs. Makhai so far was the only one who was faring well, not that he could do any reasonable amount of damage to take it down. His fighting moves just weren't devastating enough, much in the same way Amari's fire wasn't strong enough to bypass the fact that the kabutops was doubly resistant to it.

The victreebel was far more maneuverable than one might've thought at first glance. It was using its vines to grab a hold on things and swing to dodge attacks, and its vines propelled strong enough to crack concrete. Clara was on the top of the barrier the kabutops had created, watching the battle from above. All of our special attackers were either taken out of preoccupied. The golduck was fighting the steelix further up the street, it had resorted to drawing water from the storm drains to combat the massive serpent. It had the help of several other pokemon, though, and it was actually winning.

The boy ran back with a rifle smeared with blood that I chose to ignore. "Alright, that thing in her hand is an aegislash, the wandering soul of a knight latched onto the physical plane by way of possessing a sword. It's a pokemon, though."

An aegislash, I knew that I recognized it somehow. It was a steel type and a ghost type, but it was odd that it wasn't affected by Zevoa's crunch, but none of Makhai's attacks passed through it. "How do we beat it?"

"You see, we've been attacking areas indiscriminately, and she's been blocking them easily with the shield. That shield is nigh indestructible, so we have basically no chance of destroying it."

"So what do we do?"

Clara was knocking all of the pokemon that jumped on the top of the barrier. At first glance it might've seemed like she was overwhelmed, but she was beating all of them easily.

"The shield has a sort-of mind of it's own, it blocks and deflects all incoming attacks itself, the sword handles the attacking on its own, too. But she can't attack with the shield, and she can't block with the sword. That's the weakness," he said. He was firing off shots randomly to demonstrate, and she was blocking them without even looking.

"We've been focusing on taking out _her_ , we need to take out her weapons. Starting with the sword," I finished for him. "But wait, what if she sends in another pokemon to defend herself?"

"She won't. Her team has giants-pokemon that are the size of buildings. That kabutops and aegislash are the smaller ones in comparison," he explained. "First off," he whistled at a very high-pitched frequency. I glanced back and saw the golduck abandoned its steelix fight to it's his trainer's side. One of the other pokemon took the golduck's place while it joined up with us. "Alright, aim your strongest hydro pump at her and don't let up," he told the duck. It shook its head, "You're all out? Well do the storm drain thing and make it into a water pulse."

It raised its arms up and brought them together, the green colored water rose from the drains and formed into several balls that rocketed at Clara. She blocked and dodged them all. Not a single one hit her, not even a splash. "Amari, fire!" I pointed her out. He heaved smoke, but no flame. He was all out of fire.

"It's fine, I got this," the boy said. His golduck split into two, then both of them shot her with the greenish water. She jumped from the wall and landed with her feet on the shield, dodging both blasts.

"Forfeit, there is no use in fighting this losing battle," she spoke while standing side-by-side with her kabutops. It rubbed its scythes for emphasis. "Beaumont, you can run all you want. I will catch you. We already know your name, your face, your extensive criminal record. It would be a shame to see such training potential go to waste, but you caused this on yourself."

He laughed without any humor, "That's exactly why I _will_ run. Everything that made me a 'criminal' was all for the greater good. You can put me back on that island if you want, but I'll come back and fight for this cause twice as hard."

The leader sighed then grinned, "Alright, you're gonna make this difficult." She pointed the sword and shot a shadow ball from the tip. It hit the boy, Beaumont, in the chest. He flew back a few feet and into a guy on our side who was tending to his pokemon. He helped Beaumont up and went back to what he was doing. Beaumont ran back to us and picked his rifle. He unloaded an entire clip into Clara, but the shield went up to guard her face.

The kabutops was watching the fight between us, ready to step in at any moment. While it was distracted, the golduck punched a hole through its shoulder with a concentrated pulse of water. It hissed as its arm went limp. Clara's eyes widened, then the aegislash started glowing a darker violet. It was practically flaming with the darkness, she slashed wildly at us while cursing, slashes of ghostly energy were coming at us almost faster than we could see. Most of them targeted at the golduck.

"You just made this a lot easier for me to do," she smiled. She didn't have the tell-tale sign of anger that one would get from seeing their pokemon injured that badly, she appeared as if she was _glad_ that she had an excuse to not go easy on us.

"Run," Beaumont said. I followed him without protest as we retreated. We ran down the brick road into the larger battle that was happening behind us. Her steelix had dents and red-hot sections of its metal epidermis, it was too busy to notice us run right past it. It was engaging in a battle where pokemon surrounding it on all sides, but it was barely slowing down. None of the rangers hands were empty enough to help it, they were either arresting or fighting their own battles.

"Why are we running into the middle of this?" I asked him between breaths.

"Because, if we try to leave through an alley she can use her pokemon's seismic sense to track us, in this crowd there are so many vibrations that we blend in too much," he said. "Also, she probably can't tell us apart 'cause of our skin," he laughed,but there was no humor in it. "You wouldn't happen to have a flying type, would you?"

"No, but maybe we could climb?" I suggested.

"Yeah, she won't knock over a building for fear of doing way too much property damage. She won't be able to-"

"Yes or no?"

He nodded and we slipped into an alley. I looked back and saw Clara tailing us. "What about that plan to take away her sword?"

"I was formulating that when she _wasn't_ trying to kill us. If we fight her now we could both be murdered," we stopped at a fire escape. "Use your mankey to tug that ladder down while I hold her off," he told me. I released Makhai and he climbed up the wall then hopped onto the ladder. Beaumont shot her with his rifle, when he ran out of ammo he started throwing bricks at her. She was about thirty feet away, but she was closing in on us quickly.

Makhai was able to get the ladder down and we started up it. Makhai jumped down and created a clone to distract her before heading up with us. Once we were at the top I ordered Makhai to break it so she couldn't come after us. We walked up the steps of the escape so we were on the top of an apartment complex. I looked over the edge to see Clara glaring up at me.

We high-fived, "That was awesome," I said with a wide grin. The wind was stronger on the top of the five-story building, but not strong enough that we had any fear of dropping to our deaths. It was a plain flat concrete roof; the only thing on top were a few pidgey and pidove roosting.

"Yeah, but she's probably calling the rangers at this very moment for assistance. We need to figure out a way to leave before they arrive," he said. He released his golduck. "We need you to float us from building to building, and do it fast," he told it. "But first, make a copy of each of us then send them down the fire-escape down that way," It closed focused for a few seconds before three detailed copies of us standing side-by-side. They ran to the other side and went down the escape then around the building to Clara, she noticed them and gave chase, two rangers behind her.

The golduck's eyes were illuminated by an odd blue light and we were slowly lifted off our feet. Beaumont looked okay with it, but I was a little frightened. If I fell I could potentially break an ankle. The only time I'd ever been levitated was when something was trying to hurt me, the expressionless face it wore didn't exactly give off an air of kindness, either. We were a body-length off the roof when we floated forward onto another building. We ran to the edge of that one until we were at the edge, then we floated to the next. That process was quick than running, we cleared six buildings in about two minutes.

We stopped at that apartment and went down the fire escape nearest to the street. We could still see the fighting in the distance, although Clara and the rangers had probably already caught onto our ruse and they'd be twice as careful as before. They were probably searching for us at that very moment, so we had to get moving. The golduck floated next to us a few inches from the ground, his eyes still glowing. I had no doubts that it was his strongest pokemon, seeing as it was able to get into such a high-level fight and come out still standing. His team was victreebel, golduck, a lizard I suspected to be a machop, and probably more that weren't shown in the fight.

We ran down the sidewalk for a few more blocks, his golduck following closely. "We should catch a bus, we need to get out of here quickly," I suggested.

"Nah, I was thinking something else," we slowed down near a parked car. It was some brand I didn't recognize and had an odd model. It had lights in the shape of bug eyes at the front, the set in the back were rectangular and started from the bumper and went to the roof. Other than those pieces of design, it looked pretty regular. Beaumont looked at me and grinned before kicking in the window. He unlocked the vehicle and climbed in.

"The hell are you doing?"

"Calm down, we need to get out of here, and fast. They're probably coming this way right now," he said as he fiddled with the area right below the stereo system. It was appeared simply as a bundle of wires to me, so I had no idea what he was doing. He took out a great ball and threw it at the white polyester backseat. It exploded and the ball flew back into his hand. A blue eel appeared, it was the width of the car, it had to slightly coil itself to fit comfortably in the seat. It had dried blood on its long body, especially in its mouth lined with razor sharp teeth.

"I need a favor, Slick," he spoke to the eel in the backseat. It was floating slightly, suspended in gravity by a physics-breaking force. He pointed a finger at the bundle of red and black wires in the center of the vehicle. "Just unload some electricity into that, I'll tell you when to stop," the eel floated for a moment, inscrutable, as if it were contemplating his words. All of a sudden, electricity escaped its maw and loaded into the cords. It was odd watching a continuous stream of electricity like that; something that couldn't happen naturally-at least not in my world. The car came to life in about fifteen-seconds. "Hop in," Beaumont slammed the door and placed his hands on the wheel.

"I don't know…" I trailed off. It was the best choice to get away, and there were no people around to see us do it anyway, but...

"C'mon, you see the street we're on? This is one of the richest parts of town, this car is a model from next year, probably costed thousands. I guarantee they're well-off enough to cope with the loss," he reasoned. "The rangers are right behind us, I'm driving off in five seconds if you don't get in!" He slammed his hands on the steering wheel.

I ran over to the passenger side. Before I even got the door closed, Beaumont pulled off with a screech of the tires and started flying down the brick street. "Where are we going?"

"Mt. Moon, it's the safest place to hide out, you know from personal experience that they don't exactly patrol the area either."

I was headed that way anyhow, this was just a lot faster. "I mean, it's not exactly an off-road vehicle. We probably won't make it five miles without getting a flat down that trail," I said as we sped down the street. Nobody was tailing us, but we were wanted criminals. They'd come after us sooner than later.

The car skidded around a corner, he was treating the car with zero care at all; like he was getting his money's worth of that thing by treating the term 'sports car' as liberally as possible. I guess the fact that it basically free made it that much easier to get your money's worth, though. On the street where the fight was taking place they had told all of the people to stay in their houses and they blocked off the area so no cars could get in, but since we hopped the buildings we bypassed those roadblocks. "Hey, don't go so fast. Act regular, not like someone who just beat the hell out of a bunch of rangers."

"Say's the guy with a bandana covering his face," he pointed out. I pulled off the bandana and put my hood back down in response. He took my advice, though, and slowed down. "I hate this city. Five-thousand people, they're probably all one family, disgusting," he uttered.

I remained quiet. My adrenaline was just starting to go down, but I was still looking over my shoulder to see if someone had caught up. "Are you going to Cerulean?" I asked to break the silence.

"Yeah, plenty of places to hide. I'm probably going to stay on the water for a while until this cools over and they stop searching for me."

"I kind of want to continue the gym circuit, do you think I'd be able to?" I asked hopefully.

The curly-haired boy sighed, "Maybe. You haven't done anything that would warrant them taking away your training license, you've kept a pretty clean record aside from this I assume, and you're a damn good trainer on top all of that," he explained. "If they arrest you for any lengthy period of time they'll just stir up the unrest even further; probably more protests, more riots, it wouldn't be worth all the bad publicity," he spoke with his smooth voice. No cracking like a normal teenage boy's voice, he talked like an adult. He had the smile that Steven possessed, more youthful and mischievous, but still far more mature even for his age. I assumed that Beaumont had a hard life, being an illegal immigrant and all.

More silence followed, I delved into thoughts about my team. Zevoa was still injured pretty badly, she _really_ needed medical attention. Makhai was the only one who was in good health as far as I knew. Durable little thing. Amari had exhausted his fire-sac, but it would probably replenish with time. That reminded me, "We need to stop at the pokemon center," I turned to him and said.

"Why?"

"I left some important stuff there. Most of my money, medical supplies, all of my training gear too."

"Okay, as long as you got enough in there for me."

I nodded as he spinned the wheel in another direction. We went right onto the street that had the center on it and he pulled over in front of the large building. "I'll be waiting here, but just so you know, I'm leaving if I see a ranger," he warned. "Now go."

I practically ran out of the car without even shutting the door. I pushed open the glass entrance to the center and went up the flight of steps. I went in my room, found my stuff, then I dashed back out of the door. The nurse at the front desk was looking at me like I was insane at how fast I went in and out. I guessed she didn't recognize me. I threw my stuff in the backseat then sat in the car.

He laughed as he pulled off. "Took you two minutes, gotta be a record you just broke."

I just smiled. We drove for another few minutes before we exited the town. We went down the rocky trail, we slowed down to twenty or so miles an hour for carefulness. We drove on the part where people walked so we didn't pop the tires on the smaller sharp rocks off to the side. "Let's pull over," I suggested. We slowed down and we drove off the trail.

"I was thinking the same thing," he said. We went for a few minutes until the trail wasn't even in site. He stopped the car and turned off the lights before we got out.

"Are we just gonna leave it here?" I asked. Beaumont ignored me while he scrutinized the car, walking around it and pointing it with sticks. "What are you doing?"

"You're just full of questions, aren't you?" He said sarcastically. "We need to get rid of it. Osiris can't tear it apart with his telepathy, he's not strong enough. None of my other pokemon can, either."

"Let's just light it up, do you have a fire type?"

"No, but I have fire moves, but the pokemon who can use them is a little hurt," he said. I guessed he was referring to the eel, because none of his others displayed the ability to use them. "You were gonna use that magby? Go ahead, but I don't think it can light the whole thing in one go, not enough fire," he said. "These cars they make nowadays are extra-durable. Probably could take a rhyhorn charging at it head-on."

"Maybe we don't have to tear it apart. How about we just bury it? Like in a sand tomb or we can just do it the old-fashioned way," I suggested. "Use your victreebel to loosen up the dirt with its vines, then we can have your golduck-Osiris, shoot it with a hydro pump. It should be a big enough hole to fit the car."

He released the victreebel. It had its vines coiled up around it like a nest almost; its mouth was clenched tight so you could barely see the acid inside of it. "I need you to put your vines deep into the dirt and loosen it up a bit," he commanded. It unfurled its appendages and plunged them in the blink of an eye. I saw the ground sink underneath the vehicle as the plant went to work. Once he felt it was satisfactory, Beaumont returned his pokemon. He let out his golduck a second later and told it to blast the dirt with a hydro pump. It shook its head.

"You _still_ haven't replenished your water? Crap…" he sighed. "Can you draw it from the soil? Or plants?" He asked the Osirus. It let out a breath in what resembled a sigh then raised its webbed hands in the air. Small bits of water came up from the soil that was probably only equaled up to a few gallons. The golduck slowly made the water levitate high up in the night sky before it bared it down straight onto the loose dirt. The ground collapsed in on itself, revealing a gigantic hole more than large enough to fit a car. The golduck's eyes and forehead ruby began glowing and the car slowly tilted, then it fell in the pit with a loud bang and a flurry of dust.

"How do we cover it up?" I asked as we peered over the massive ditch. Beaumont's golduck was kneeled on one knee, breathing loudly. It's trainer's hand rested on its back, rubbing gently in circles. The pokemon was understandably tired out. He probably provided the most of any pokemon that participated in the riot.

"I can handle that," he said with a smirk. He took his hand from Osiris's slimy-wet looking back and fished in his pocket for a pokeball. He released his victreebel, "Victreebel acid can melt steel. With a full dosage he can probably disintegrate into grey mush by morning," his victreebel emptied the yellowish bile of its pitcher like projectile vomit into the pit. It made a bubbling sound like grease popping, "We'd best get out of here, we've got ground to cover."

 **8500+ words, they just keep getting longer and longer. Anyway, I think things are moving too fast, but the plot has been leading up to this the whole time. Clara is a dedicated Kanto patriot, fighting for her country. Beaumont is an illegal immigrant who was looking for a better future in Kanto, one that his late parents never got. Floyd is just confused. Please review, follow, favorite if you enjoy.**


	26. Chapter 27

I'm not dead! I didn't run out of inspiration either, my charger broke, I was waiting for a new one to come in the mail, so expect my next chapter to come in a week or so, then probably regular updates once I get in the groove.


	27. Chapter 28

Gathered around a fire in the middle of we sat. Our teams surrounded us, our features lit up by the flame produced by Amari. The cave brought back bad memories, I remembered even the small insignificant details. The dampness made it very hard to get an inferno blazing, the lack of suitable dry kindle to use. When we walked in I braced myself for the bloodstains and debris to still be strewn about from my fight. Beaumont gave me space, he didn't press me about what happened. We all ate the leftover meat I had from the stantler that Zevoa killed along with fresher meat for his other pokemon and burnt seeds and insects for Amari.

I stroked Zevoa's fur to keep my hand busy while we spoke to each other. Beaumont wasn't talkative, but he wasn't anti-social. Not like Steven. Whenever he and I spoke he would be the one to initiate conversation. Terry was the same, they were charismatic in totally different ways. Beaumont was a person set on his goals. He didn't talk about much other than his pokemon, and that usually involved talked to his pokemon. He didn't share anything particular about his life, but then again neither did I. We got along fine.

"So you don't do the badges thing, huh?" I asked. We were both restless, understandably. I was still nursing his and my pokemon's wounds. His golduck had a giant gash on its stomach, I had to re-dress Solomon and Zevoa's bandages. On top of worrying about our pokemon's well-being, we were both afraid that any minute we'd have to fight a swarm of rangers. It was intense.

"No. Like I said, I can't. I'm not here legally, so it'd kind of be stupid to stride into a government building like a gym and expect to get out safely," he said. "And besides, at least I won't get the stink eye when I try to challenge the Cerulean Gym Leader after she heard about how you beat the shit out of a bunch of rangers," he snickered. It was a sort of sore spot for me; I knew that even if I didn't get in any trouble for attacking the rangers, that didn't mean that the leaders would exactly like what I did.

"Well aren't you already in bad graces with a far more powerful and tempermental leader."

"Clara's just a bitch. A patriotic bitch," he repeated.

I didn't have to speak any more on the point that we already talked about time and time again. I changed the subject, "How about we keep it pushing? We've still got a few more miles to cover. Big ass mountain," I sighed while I got up and stretched my muscles. I was stiff from all the movements, and not in the usual way. I smoothed back my dark hair and threw my hood over my head. "You wanna go ahead and put out that fire, Osiris?" I asked. The teal colored platypus nodded then sprayed the fire with water. Neither of us got mad at one and other over using eachothers pokemon for random tasks.

He sighed, "Yeah, let's go." I returned the sleeping Amari, Makhai and Solomon, he returned his Victreebel, Aubrey, and his non-nocturnal pokemon and left out his Golduck while I kept Zevoa. The victreebel needed extensive time in sunlight to stay in peak condition. Without that, it looked wilted and sickly. I observed that while I was thinking of ways I could possibly beat his team just in case it came down to it. He had an environment dependent team. His golduck needed time in water to replenish its reserves, his machop couldn't see in the dark, his victreebel needed sunlight. His elektrik was the only one that didn't particularly care where it was fighting, but it needed to charge after using a lot of its electricity. Osiris would get beaten by Zevoa, especially in the cave. She could disappear in the darkness and he wouldn't be able to track her psychically. Within the confines of the cave, Zevoa could also probably defeat the machop. It was a lizard, so it was able to taste the air around it, but only in close quarters. The victreebel was astonishingly mobile, it was incredibly quick in an unconventional way. It swung off its vines at odd angles, it possessed potent poisons that gave I strategic edge. Amari could beat him by the simple fact that he held a type advantage, but in the realm of poison types, Solomon was superior. The victreebel lacked sufficient long ranged combat, whereas Solomon had a plethora of techniques for it.

I hadn't seen his elektrik battle yet, so I couldn't make any educated guesses as to what its strengths and weaknesses were.

Terry's arcanine was massive and might've been able to solo most of my team at once. The rest of her team from what I saw wouldn't be too difficult to beat. She had caught a scyther and a mareep, but I had yet to see either. Steven was an eight-badge trainer with a luxray. It wasn't even a question of whether or not I could beat him; there wasn't even a chance.

I thought about creating more techniques for Zevoa. It would tip the odds in her favor in a sort of underhanded way. Maybe coat the field in darkness. I had no idea how to go about doing something like that, but it was possible. I could maybe electrify Solomon's quills, or freeze them into spears. Makhai could take some cues from Solomon and Zevoa and master his elemental punches. Amari was strictly fire and poison attacks and it would be difficult to teach anything else. Fire types were apparently harder to teach in general. They couldn't learn too many fire moves before they were ready, otherwise, they'd just be exhausting their fire sac's too fast.

I wrapped my arms around myself, I felt like an icicle. The hoodie was doing nothing to relieve that, I was regretting ditching my larger coat. Zevoa was stalking through the tunnels, sometimes I'd see brief flashes of her red irises. I was shivering in more ways than one. She was faster in the darkness to the point that if she was twenty feet away from you, she could cover that distance in less than two seconds. I had no idea how many creatures she had killed while we were walking, but I never got to hear their pained screams. I knew Beaumont was horribly spooked. His golduck was actually trying to snipe Zevoa with pressurized water blasts, but it was never quick enough.

"Osiris can't tag her. That's impressive on her part," Beaumont said while we both watched her dart in and out of the void of the tunnels.

"He probably can't track her with his psychic abilities. She _is_ a dark-type, remember," I commented. "And Zevoa has minor seismic vibration sense, so she can probably feel it when Osiris is turning toward her and she can move before he even begins to try and hit her. She's a smart girl."

"Yeah, that damned thing is. I saw how well she performed against the rangers and Clara, even if she wasn't there for long," he said with a vague insult tied into his statement. It wasn't like he was wrong; she was knocked out fairly quickly, but she took out probably more pokemon than all of our teams put together. She was also one of the smartest and strongest between both of our groups.

"Is she your starter? Or is it Makhai?" Beaumont asked.

I shook my head, "No, she's what I started off with. Makhai came a while later," I answered.

"Oh, because she's decent. On the low, you're one of the best trainers I've ever met at your level. Not many two badge trainers can beat up ranger pokemon that are eight-badge level, higher even," he said.

"Thanks, but I'm nothing special. My pokemon are just used to fighting things bigger and stronger than them since I started off. Zevoa fought an _onix_ before I even had a single badge," I said.

"How though? You don't really have that great of a strategy, you just sent out your pokemon and let them do their own thing, then command them at crucial moments," he titled his head while delivering the question. My eyebrows lowered subconsciously, although I didn't feel particularly ruffled by the statement. I probably should have.

However, I maintained a calm disposition while answering the question. "Because Zevoa was already a mightyena _before_ I caught her. Makhai fought off a Ranger's team before I caught him. I'm not sure about Solomon, but he was already capable before I obtained him because he could hold his own against a full-grown mightyena. They clearly can hold their own in a battle, all they need is my subtle influence to get them in the right direction."

Beaumont nodded, taking the information in before saying. "That's not how you win a championship. All the elites go through extensive and rigorous training with their teams, while I haven't watched you do a single push-up. I've been training for a while now, I've seen quite a few trainers-"

I interrupted him with a raised voice, "Question, do you think you could beat me in a battle?"

He raised his eyebrows. It took him a moment to answer, but when he did, he sounded very unsure of himself. "Um, I don't know."

We were silent for the rest of our walk, neither of us bothering to drop the last straw on the camel's back. We needed each other for the trek through the cave system, just in case of an ambush or a large pokemon attack or any other potential obstacle we might've faced. Another day, two days, three days, four days, a week, and the whole time we didn't speak to each other much. Constant moving forward until we reached the home stretch. The exit.

We could literally see the light at the end of the tunnel. Towards the end of the cave, we encountered more large ponds and differing wild life, I chopped it up to the large body of water in Cerulean. The pokemon were also stronger, most of them were a little ways stronger than Amari, so they offered a good challenge to our teams. I worked on Zevoa's sucker punches, Amari's flamethrowers and Makhai's after-image technique. They were all at one-hundred percent health, perfect fighting condition.

It was a good thing, too, because we ran into trouble in the form of a blockade of Rangers. They were standing in a straight line, each had a pokemon in front of them. A houndoom led the pack, flames licking from the sides of it's maw. The long curved horns on its head were lowered in anticipation of an attack, its tail whipped the rocky floor and sent splinters through it.

A man, jet black hair and a slight crookedness to his teeth, stood behind the hellhound. His orange leather jacket was now longer and darker, more of an auburn color. it reached the back of his knees and was slightly wet at the end. Next to him was another black-haired young man, his face was softer than the older man's, but was grimier than the last time I saw it. He had the regular uniform colors.

Raymond and Steven. Steven had his luxray out, blue sparks flicked around it as it bared sharp sabers at me. Steven was the first to speak, "I made Ranger, Floyd," he said grimly.

I simply stared dumbfoundedly. Raymond's mouth was pressed into a line. Beaumont was breathing hard, probably a little afraid. He definitely had heaps of adrenaline circulating through his veins. My heart was pumping extra quickly. Zevoa stood crouched, a dark haze was floating off her. Osiris was dripping with water, the ponds around him were stirring.

"Steven, I don't wanna fight you."

He took off his hat and walked toward us, his luxray trailing behind him. "I didn't want to fight you either, but this is my job now. Just surrender-"

"No!" Beaumont yelled. Osiris shot a hydro pump at a cluster of Rangers, sending them flying into the cave wall. "Freeze!" He ordered, Osiris turned the torrent of water into a frozen web of liquid that pinned their torsos to the wall. Steven's eyes widened as Osiris turned to him, but his luxray counter a water pulse with a thunderbolt, creating an explosion of electrified water.

Raymond's houndoom used a flamethrower laced with dark energy against Osiris to apply pressure, forcing it to keep dodging. Zevoa blinked out of existence and body checked the houndoom while it was distracted.

Steven called off his luxray while I held back Beaumont. "Steven! This isn't a fight any of us want. Just move out the way," I said. Steven shook his head and sighed. His luxray took it as an order to pounce on us. Zevoa had a lock around one of the houndoom's horns, limiting its range of movement and ability to attack. It exploded into a blazing inferno as Raymond ordered it to use flare blitz. Zevoa moved back to avoid a burn and possibly being knocked out by the powerful attack.

I released the rest of my team once I let go of Beaumont, he shoved me as soon as he was free. "Don't touch me again unless you want a problem," he growled. I ignored him, instead focusing on the task of fighting the barricade of Rangers. He scoffed and grabbed a large rock. We both rushed into the fight, he chucked the rock at a random Ranger, but it was dodged. The Ranger aimed his rifle, but Raymond raised his hand.

"No lethal force. They're just kids," he looked me in the eyes. I backed away and maintained visual contact with him. If we could somehow distract them, we could slip between their lines.

"Solomon, use your poison sting," I pointed at the luxray, "A lot of poison. A whole lot!" I told him. It took him a moment to build up the toxins in his system. Within a minute he discharged a few dozen quills, the majority hit the luxray dead-on, but couldn't get through it's thick mane. It noticed our attack and used a thunderbolt, and I noticed how the electricity would only be a quick jolt before dispersing. He also avoided hitting Osiris, who was the only pokemon out that was weak to electricity.

I facepalmed. The floor of the cave was soaked with water. If he hit the ground with a thunderbolt it would electrocute us all. "Can Osiris use reflect, protect or light screen?," I said. He looked at me quizzically, like I was an idiot.

"He can use all three, but they aren't particularly strong. Why?" He asked while chucking another rock into the air. They weren't hitting, but they forced everyone to keep on their toes.

"Have him put a reflect and a light screen around the luxray," I told him. He growled before giving the order. His Golduck ran up to the luxray and pushed it with a psychic wave, causing it to tumble. It raised its arms and psychic energy started flowing out of its pores. A golden cube formed around the luxray, then a purple one. They layered on top of each other until it was like a pancake of forcefields surrounding the luxray on all sides.

"Zevoa, use thief," I commanded her. It wasn't a move I used often, so it took a few repetitions of the request for her to remember what it meant. I pointed at Steven, then pointed at the pokeballs on his belt. She cackled, the sound bounced off the cave walls and sent chills up my spine. Two dark hands clawed their way from Steven's shadow, grabbed the belt right from his waist. They retracted back into the shadow and Steven wasn't even aware that his items were missing. He was ordering his luxray to stay calm and wait out the screens, and it was listening. It's ears were pinned to the back of it's head, it was staring down Beaumont and I with fire in it's eyes.

"Shit," I said under my breath. I had to think of something. I banged my head with my balled up fist, doing a run down of all the techniques in my repertoire, the moves that could be useful. My plan would only work if the luxray would keep attacking. I was using a coercion strategy, if that made sense. Give it something to be angry about, and it would be a threat to everything around it as soon as it got out. Like keeping a bear in a cage, then letting it out in a room full of people.

"I see what you're doing," Beaumont grinned. "You aren't too bad after all."

I smiled and gave my order, "Zevoa, Makhai, use taunt," I told them, putting the final piece into play. Makhai and Zevoa danced around the cube, cackling and pounding chests respectively. The luxray roared; although it was muffled, I could still hear the emotion in the feline's voice. It was frustrated and furious, but it was unable to release any of it's tension. Waves of charged electricity slammed into the dual-screens, causing small spiderwebs of splinters at the points of impact. The luxray used a high-powered thunderbolt on the screen in front of it, creating a flash of light inside of its enclosure. A stream of fire silenced my taunting pokemon. They retreated back to my side. It was okay, though, the final phase was complete.

"Raymond, order you men to stand down!" I yelled at him. He raised his right hand, all the pokemon on his side stopped moving as their trainers told them to. He folded his arms, egging me to continue.

"I'll get right to the point, everyone in this cave who is standing in a few inches of water raise your hand," I said. I heard mutters between some of the Rangers, but everyone raised their hands. "That luxray? It's angry. Very angry. And if even one of those bolts hits the water, some of us could potentially die," I said. Steven's eyes widened, he searched for his pokeballs, but found nothing. I smirked and held the belt above my head. "Looking for something?"

Steven shook his head with a smile plastered onto his face. I continued, "Now, you all are going to clear out of my way-"

"Why should we listen to you?" A Ranger yelled from the group. Raymond put his index finger to his lips, quieting the Ranger.

I cleared my throat, "Because you have about three minutes before that luxray breaks through those shields, then we're all going to get turned into lightning rods."

This time, Raymond was the one who spoke. "Clever, Floyd. A straight-forward strategy, executed perfectly. Almost. You forgot one thing," a little girl with a red bow tied around her Kimono style dress clawed her way from Raymond's shadow. It flew directly through the screens and landed in front of the luxray. A flash of white light filled the cube. I stood in anticipation. The froslass would likely be dead or worse from the electricity in such a close proximity, but I'd have to wait and see.

The light faded. There was no longer a luxray in the cube, instead, there was empty air. Osiris dispersed the screens and we all looked around for the luxray. In my peripheral vision, there was a giant rock that hadn't been there a few moments ago. That's what it appeared to be to myself and likely anyone else at first glance. When we looked harder, we saw what it really was. A luxray, flash frozen in a glacier of ice. It's eyes were wide open, it's body was still. Dead.

Steven dropped to his knees. He wailed a long, exasperated sound. Everyone had their heads hung in mourning, some of them were covering their eyes. I looked away, as did Beaumont.

"What the hell is wrong with you, Raymond?" I asked, stomping up to him with my hands balled up. "You just killed his pokemon!"

"I had to, I couldn't let you all get away. You needed to be captured-"

Steven clipped him in the jaw. Raymond's hand gripped around his mouth. "This is what we do. A boy who has the potential to become a national terrorist is on the loose, Beaumont is dangerous. Floyd could be going on that track too. I'm sorry for your luxray. I'm sorry to you, Floyd, for clouding your vision of what Rangers really are. We try our hardest, I'm trying my hardest right now to do this peacefully, to take you and Beaumont without a fight, without a protest, without a riot, without hurting anything or anyone else."

I shoved Raymond to the floor. "You aren't taking us in," I growled. Steven wasn't even next to us anymore. His hand was gently pressed to the glacier that held his luxray. I decided not to beckon him, leaving the boy to grieve. I remembered what I went through with Jerry. I would be like if I lost Zevoa. I probably wouldn't be able to train anymore after that.

"Floyd, you don't have a choice," he said softly. Before I could lash out and run, my whole team dropped like logs. I swayed on my feet before passing out. They got me.

 **What a miracle! He can write again!**

 **I'm back, I guess. I don't wanna lie and say that I'll be updating once a week or once every two weeks, but at least you can know that I didn't fall and break my fingers or something. Also, thank you to Chandan and Unsuspecting Jew for reviewing, also Josh Moodie even though you reviewed months ago, and all the other guest reviewers. Guy's, make official accounts so that I can PM you to ask for your idea's and opinions. I like to ask my readers what they think of the story, especially if I think they could provide some dope insight. Once you get official accounts, review this chapter or PM me so that I know what your usernames are.**

 **To everyone else, welcome to the most inconsistent story in the entire world of Pokemon Fanfiction. Please review, favorite and follow this story if you enjoyed.**


	28. Chapter 28 20

I sat in a steel room, my arms were free, but I had no reason to venture out of my uncomfortable cold metal chair. I clicked my fingers on the table and sipped periodically on my coffee. It wasn't like I needed the caffeine, I was already restless.

After they detained me, they had me inside of my little cell for about a day. A cozy private cell, guarded by two houndoom that blocked psychic teleportation. I was apparently high-profile. Last time I checked, I only had two badges.

I could see my reflection on the table, bags hung under my eyes, my hair was messy. I was only able to throw some water on it from the sink and comb through it with my fingers, but it would have to do. My tawny _looked_ tired. Before they moved me, I was told five minutes in advance.

The steel door opened and hit the wall with a metallic _cling_. Two men stepped into the room, one had a pot belly that threatened to pour out of his black suit, the other a ranger uniform. The man in the suit walked to the other side of the table and took a seat across from me. He had a styled beard that started off brown and faded into a gray color around his chin, on his head was a fedora slightly tilted to the side.

"Who are you?" I asked.

He laughed, like how a mall Santa Claus would laugh. Hardy and baritone, with a slight smugness at the end. Like how one would laugh at a puppy that didn't know how to climb the stairs. "You don't know? I've defended more natives than I can count, Darius Green, Terry Palmer, Robert Grant, to name a few. Some rich guys hired me to be your defender, so here I am."

"But you didn't answer my question, _who are you_?" I repeated.

"I'm Wilbert Wayne, your defender. I came in to discuss the case of Floyd North, prodigy trainer turned radical leftist extremist," he scrutinized me with his piercing green eyes, suggesting he was smarter than his oafish appearance might've made you think. His voice had a snide tone to it like he thought he was better than me. He probably was, economically, socially, intelligence wise, but he still came off as an asshole. Stroking his beard with his sausage fingers, I'd probably see some crumbs in it if I looked hard enough. But, if he was as good as he thought he was, then I'd take him any day.

"I'm not an extremist, believe it or not, I was coerced into joining the rebel movement," I explained with an impatient tone. I noted how the ranger kept a hand on the release button of his belt, so I decided I'd need to cool it down so he wouldn't be inclined to press it. "Don't get me wrong, it's fucked up what you're doing to these people, but I didn't necessarily want any part in it. I just wanted-I _want_ to just complete the gym circuit."

He nodded and proceeded to pick up a suitcase and place it on the table. He unlocked it and took out a blue binder. It was labeled 'Floyd North,' on the front in red letters. He squinted at the folder and read aloud,"Well you might still be able to. But first, we have to get this out of the way. You have a dozen counts of assaulting a ranger, treason, one count of grand theft auto, and two counts of battery," he said. "Well, scratch that. The grand theft auto was actually Beaumont's doing apparently, he already confessed to it. Do you plead guilty to the other ones?"

"No, actually those two counts of battery were self-defense. They basically jumped me in the alley. But everything else is true," I said. "Wait, wait. When do I go to court?"

"Court? That is for regular criminals. For trainers of your caliber we do private meetings to decide your fate, then we go to the public with the news of your unfortunate sentencing after we've already decided it. We wouldn't be able to afford the risk that someone breaks you out during the hearing."

"Unfortunate sentencing?"

"There is no such thing as a good punishment, right?" He laughed. I wasn't amused. "So, after this, I'll go speak to the judge. I'll talk to the other rangers. If some of the rangers choose to drop your charges, we could get you a training probation at the bare minimum. That would mean that you are prohibited from capturing pokemon that are stronger than a certain level for a few months. You also wouldn't be able to challenge other trainers or gym leaders. Not the worst penalty, but it'll probably come with a gigantic fine, though. At most, if the rangers decide to keep the charges against you, you could be looking at up to 3 years in prison and a revoking of your training license."

Despite my cool demeanor, I was sweating bullets. A revoking of my training license would mean they would take away my pokemon. I couldn't lose Zevoa, Makhai, Solomon and even Amari, they were like family. Wilbert continued, "This isn't exactly the best advice a lawyer can give you, but I feel like it has the best chance of giving you a minimal sentencing, or perhaps even letting you walk out of here within a week," I leaned forward in my seat, indicating him that I was intrigued. Whatever it was that he planned, I was in. "Take this to the media. Get an army of people to take your side, celebrities, charities, all that already have enough aggression pent up from just _hearing_ how you were caught. Make a huge thing of it, like you were persecuted throughout your whole life by rangers, and how you can't even walk the streets at night without being attacked for your race, blah blah blah, you get the point."

I could see how that would work, but there was one problem, "How would I even go about that? I mean, it isn't like I can get out of this. The two places I go are here and my cell. I don't have the freedom to talk to anybody with a camera."

"I can cover that for you. I have friends that work for the local news stations, once they get the word out, protests and riots happen in your honor," he stopped and winked at me. I cringed at his word choice. "Then the rangers would have no _choice_ but to let you go. If they didn't, then they could be looking at the breaking point for an all-out civil war."

I'd be down for taking advantage of them, of the power that I had as a civil rights leader against my will. "Alright, let's do that. I'd like to get out of here as soon as possible."

 _XxXxXxXx_

I felt terrible for taking advantage of the people of Kanto like how I did. I convinced myself otherwise, that I was dragged into it, but that wasn't as true as I wished that it was. Still, from a logical standpoint, this was the best route.

Three days after me and Wilbert's conversation, I was back in the steel re-enforced room. He and I had had a few more discussions of my fate. He somehow got some people to install a television in the top left corner of the room, it was rotom and porygon proof apparently, I didn't know that they had to worry about stuff like that. On the television, Wilbert's plan was playing out perfectly. It was covering a protest over my and Beaumont's capture. Wilbert had a huge smile on his face with his too white to be real teeth. They were getting my papers in order for my departure from the station, Wilbert said they'd probably prolong it just to screw with me, but I was willing to wait. At the end of the day, our plan worked out just fine. We fought the law, and we won.

"What about Raymond?" I asked. I was sipping on a juice box that my defender brought for me.

"The guy that killed the luxray back in ? He's pissed, royally pissed. Raymond said to one of my contacts in the force that he'd keep trying to apprehend you, that justice needed to be served before it was too late for you," he said.

I grinned. "Hm, ominous. I hope he doesn't actually think he'll get me, though. Once I get out of here I'm going on the longest training binge in my life," I claimed. "Anyway, Raymond can go to hell. I'm wondering if Steven is doing okay, you know him? Steven Hill?"

"He took a temporary leave to mourn the loss of his pokemon and catch a replacement, but he'll remain a member of the force. They re-assigned him to Vermillion, though. Over sixty miles south of Cerulean," he informed me.

The steel door swung open and two rangers walked in, each with a pokemon by their side. raichu and what I suspected to be a castform, a concentrated haze of smoke that floated behind the man like a living cloud. Also ominous. "Come with us," one said. I got up from my seat and pushed past them and went into the hallway for the first time without handcuffs on. Wilbert followed behind me, although he couldn't squeeze past them like I did with his robust physique. The rangers followed behind us, the only sound as we walked down the white hallway was the clacking of their boots and the heavy breathing of Wilbert. I felt a smugness that I didn't think I'd ever felt before, I cheated the system and got out of a handful of crimes without a problem. I could hear the chanting of the protesters outside, the words were muffled but the message was clear.

We got to the checkout desk, a female secretary with dark purple gothic lipstick handed me my papers, which I signed as quickly as possible. I didn't even read the fine print, I was running off the mindset that because of the backing of an _entire_ race of people, that I had a legal immunity. "You accept that when you sign this document, that we have permission to take complete custody of your pokemon if you ever decide to assault a ranger, gym leader or other government official while using them as weapons? This would also come with two years in prison and a 15,000 crown fine," she said.

That's what I signed to? Just because I had a stroke of confidence, I could potentially lose my pokemon if I ever, even once, attack a ranger, didn't matter if I was defending myself or someone else, I'd lose them. I read over the page that I signed, and sure enough, that's what it said. What was the alternative, though? Could I just not sign the document? Wilbert was just standing there, looking between me and the secretary with no expression on his pink face. "I thought my defender was supposed to read over any legal documents before I signed them?" I spat with fire in my voice.

"I did read it, a few days ago they provided me the papers to look over. I decided not to tell you what they said for fear of you not signing them. Did you really think you'd get off scot-free for your crimes?" He said with a laugh.

"We could've just gone through court and tried to get me a minimal sentencing. Instead, I got the maximum, the only difference is that I won't be going straight to prison," I raised my voice at him.

"You really think they would've let you get off with probation? Really? They despise you, they would never hear what you had to say in the court of law. They don't like you, they'll look for any reason to put you in prison. Believe it or not, this is what's best for you," he said. People said that a lot. Everybody seemed to know best but me. "No such thing as a good punishment, remember."

I glared at him long and hard, even though it was mostly my own fault for being so stupid. And for trusting a lawyer. Yeah, that was also a mistake. I just shoved my pokeballs into my pockets and snatched my backpack from the counter before heading out. There were about fifty people in front of the station that cheered once they saw me. I raised my hand in a salute, everyone in the crowd saluted me back. I looked over my shoulder and saw Wilbert yelling to the crowd about some power to the people nonsense, but I kept going my own way down the road. A few people tried to follow me, but I waved them off and they went back into the crowd.

"Hey! Floyd! Don't you hear me talking to you?" I heard a female voice say. I turned around and saw a familiar girl, slightly taller than me and a lot more adult looking. Her eyes were covered by black sunglasses, on her torso was a black peacoat and on her neck was a black scarf. She looked like she had somewhere important to be, but I knew why she was dressed like that. Some of the members of the movement had taken to wearing either their native attire, beads and stantler hides and the like, or all black suits. She chose the latter, giving herself a coordinated and intimidating presence.

"Oh, Terry. It's nice to finally see you," I greeted her. She wrapped me into a one-armed hug and ruffled my hair.

"You too, it's been a while. You've been up to some things since the last time we saw each other, oh, seven or so months ago?" She had a more mature way of speaking, too. "Last time I checked, you were the guy that said something about how he wasn't going to be involved in this, or something along those lines. Looks like you're pretty damn involved now, huh?"

"Let's get out of here before they start swarming me for interviews. I don't feel like talking to them right now," I told her. She nodded and we continued walking onto a magnificent golden drawbridge, with an entrance sign that read 'Nugget Bridge,' in bold red letters. It was one of the longest bridges I'd ever seen, it bustled with trainer activity, joggers, and people capturing the view with cameras. I got to see the beauty of Cerulean on the bridge, and it was, well, beautiful. Sparkling blue waves crashed against the white sand bar, a large mountain in the distance to the right and a modern city to the left painted a poetic picture of nature and man in perfect harmony. Even the people seemed happier than the ones in Pewter, not a single one didn't have a smile on their face. A trainer rode his sharpedo like a jet ski, cutting through the waves alongside another trainer, probably having some sort of race. I'd have to take a dip in the water as soon as I could. It was too cold to do it at the moment, but in a little while, it would be swim season.

"How long have you been here, Terry?"

"About a month. It's too nice for me to leave. I heard the beach in Vermillion is even better, but the trip to get there is so long," she sighed.

"Just retire here if you like it so much here," I suggested. "You and Bailey can sunbath well into your forties."

She laughed, "I can't retire, so much to do these days. I might leave depending on what your plans are," she said. "I mean, the leader here was pretty hard to beat. Her gym has a giant swimming pool, and unless Zevoa can doggie paddle, I don't know what your chances will be."

"I'm going to binge train. Evolve Makhai, get some more training in with Amari, you know," I told her. She nodded.

"Well, watch yourself. There are a lot of people who want your head on a platter. I was assaulted a few weeks ago. Bailey put the bums in the hospital."

"I'll be fine, I'm not worried about randoms as much as I am about the rangers. If I touch a ranger pokemon, then I'm toast. I'll lose my whole team."

"Then just hold off on inciting riots. I'll forgive you for it," she grinned. I dropped a random pokeball, not even bothering to see what pokemon it was. Makhai was out, he stretched his legs and jumped onto the steel railing on the side of the bridge. He screeched in glee as he balanced on it as if he just didn't give a damn about the fact that he could fall to his death with one false move. It made me worry about his mental health.

I noticed that he was a lot taller, and his tail was shorter. His fur was also a bit darker, more of a caramel colour now than the khaki that it was before. He was getting older, getting closer to his evolution. I couldn't wait until I had a primeape on my team. He'd be my second evolved pokemon to evolve, not counting Zevoa, since I caught her as a mightyena. I didn't get to really enjoy Solomon's evolution because I saw it first when I was drunk. I remembered how it was odd seeing him turn from a purple rabbit to a rhino-boar with quills sticking out of his back. When he was a nidoking he'd be a six-foot tall bipedal rhino with a horn longer than my arm. _That_ would be weird.

"I think I'll go train too. Maybe just say the gym circuit can go to hell and go straight to the most hardcore place in Kanto," she said.

"Oh yeah? And what would that be?"

"The Ice Cave, full of pokemon ten times stronger than Bailey, freezing cold temperatures, supposedly home to the legendary pokemon, Articuno," she said dramatically. It sounded interesting. Maybe I _would_ go there. If I survived a week in a place like that, it would certainly say something about my skill as a trainer.

"What if we went during the summertime?" I asked.

"It'd be just as cold, but harder to traverse because there'd be more water than ice, the ice would also be less stable, it'd cave in under your feet at any moment. I'd say the only place that's worse is deep in the jungles of the Sevii Islands, and of course, The Cerulean Cave," she pointed at a something in the distance, it looked like a black void partially enveloped with water. Men in orange uniforms blocked the entrance. That was Cerulean Cave.

"Maybe after I'm done in Cerulean, we can go to on one of those places."

Terry changed the subject with an interesting proposition. "How about a battle for old times sake?"

I thought about it for a moment. She had an arcanine, slowpoke, scyther and a mareep. Decent team, probably very well-trained. "Yeah, actually. That'd be fun. A good way to take my mind off things."

She ran over to the other side of the bridge, widthwise, which was about forty feet. I stood still and collected my thoughts. I had a baby pokemon that barely had any variation to its move set, which basically meant I had three and a half pokemon to work with. Amari had done good against those rangers, but that was with older, more experienced pokemon backing him up.

"Makhai, get over here," I motioned for him with my finger. He hopped down from his post on the railing and did three backflips to close the distance between us. Showoff. He climbed up my leg and did his best attempted at a smile, showing off his countless razor sharp fangs. I laughed nervously, even though I knew what the gesture was. It was like when a dog wagged its tail, it was a greeting. I ruffled his coarse mane. "Alright, get down. We're gonna battle."

If there was one thing Makhai loved, well, he loved a lot of things. But a battle was at the top of the list. He stood in front of me and beat his chest, then screeched as loud as he could at Terry. "He's ready, are you?"

"Of course!" I yelled back. I was hyped up. Not many battles excited me, but battling someone like Terry made my blood boil. Last time I won, but I had no idea who would this time. She threw a pokeball on the golden bridge, kicking off the battle. Her slowpoke appeared, a lot bigger than before. It stood on its hind legs, its tail was now grayish and stood up stiffly. It was bloated, and its vast amounts of fat transformed it into what looked like less like an otter and more like a baby hippopotamus. Betsy roared, showing off the jagged incisors in her enormous maw. She could probably crush a watermelon with that mouth.

"Makhai, double team," I commanded him. Three copies appeared and switched places with each other. If he stood still the slowpoke would get a lock on him, then it would be over. The slowpoke created a steaming hot torrent of water and blasted each clone. What it didn't know, though, was that the real Makhai was behind it. He grabbed its tail and swung it overhead, slamming it on the bridge. I could feel the platform shake with the impact, making me stumble. "Double team again!"

"Psywave!" The hippopotamus grumbled and rolled back onto its feet. Makhai was on the defensive. He hopped in place and bobbed his head, trying not to stay still. He probably figured out himself after he felt the prodding of the psychic in his head. He made three more clones by the time the slowpoke let loose its attack. A wave of pink energy erupted from her body, disappating the clones and sending Makhai flying into the barrier of the bridge. "Scald again, keep him pinned," she told it. Once again she opened her maw and shot boiling hot water at Makhai, but he jumped out of the way before it connected.

"Night slash," I ordered. Makhai's claws starting radiating with a dark haze, the sharp tips grew by a foot and were enveloped completely in black, pure dark energy. He charged and sent a clone in first as a decoy to bait out an attack. It caught a scald and disappeared, but he was able to avoid the torrent by leaping over it. The poor pokemon was helpless as his claws plunged into its meaty side, he turned and started shredding her face before she even registered what was happening. The slowpoke roared loud enough to send Makhai stumbling, then a point-blank blast of water sent him crashing into the wall. "You okay boy?" He hacked up some blood and struggled to stand up straight, but he wanted to keep on. "Good, now finish it," I told him. He made a bloodcurdling screech before rushing the slowpoke.

"Flamethrower," Terry said with a grin. A concentrated ball of fire built up in the back of her throat, charging up the attack before releasing a flamethrower that completely blanketed Makhai. He broke through the attack and appeared directly in front of the slowpoke. He hopped on its snout, then used the extra height to do a backflip and get behind it. He landed in a roll of which he used the momentum of to grab her tail and toss her off the side of the bridge. She roared while twirling in mid-air before disappearing from view and into the water below. Terry turned around and peered over the gate. The large splash made by the hippo soaked Terry from head to toe. I laughed, but Terry looked furious. "Betsy, get back up here," she yelled at her pokemon.

I stood there for a moment, Makhai panting in front of me. A wave crashed over the side, it had to be atleast fifty feet in height, with the hippo riding it until it hit the wood with a crack. The slowpoke once again roared, lifting up Makhai with psychic energy before slamming him repeatedly into the ground and chucking him at me. I returned him before he collided with my body, and thought for a second about who I would send out next. Zevoa could compete with her strictly because of her dark typing, but I wanted to save her for the suprises her scyther and mareep might've pulled through with. Solomon was also a ranged fighter, but he was weak to psychic attacks and wasn't mobile enough to avoid them like Makhai.

Solomon had his thunderbolt, and his poisons were very potent. He lowered his horn, the spear-like tip soaked with toxins. He huffed and stomped his two toed boar-like hoof. I looked around and saw clusters of people gathered to witness the battle. Half of them were chanting my name, others were on Terry's side, either way it fulled me with energy. "Solomon, give'em a show," I said. He huffed and his quills grew erect. "Poison sting," he showered the slowpoke, sticking its face and injecting a small amount of poison with every quill. The slowpoke stood on its hind legs and roared a challenge. Its belly was exposed, and Solomon decided to take the opportunity to zap it with a thunderbolt, causing it to seize up and fall limply with a crash.

"Psychic," Terry ordered. Betsy's eyes glowed blue and Solomon was lifted a few inches off the floor before he interrupted the slowpoke's attack with a thunderbolt. Once he dropped, he charged it with a poison jab aimed straight for its chest. He avoid a flamethrower by running to the right, then changed direction once more to penetrate its belly. He plunged his horn inches deep into its stomach. It gurgled and a watery red liquid spilled from its mouth, he finished it off with a thunderbolt that shocked the slowpoke from the inside, instantly knocking it out. Terry returned her pokemon with a scowl.

"She's so slow, and she's getting slower with age. It's hard for her to defend against attacks when her reaction speed is abysmal," Terry sighed. "But I'll still win this battle. Goblin, let's go," she released a five-foot tall green insect with scythes instead of arms that were sharper than swords. It had a distinct arthropodic appearance, but at the same time it looked like a dinosaur. It's feet ended with two long talons, and its wings beated with the ferocity of airplane propellers. It made a noise that was reminiscent of a screech, but with the background noise of a high-pitched hiss behind it. It sent chills up my spine. "Goblin, double team then u-turn."

Four copies sprung up around the scyther, throwing off Solomon's aim and confusing him before they rushed him. Extremely fast pokemon, many times faster than Makhai. It was little more than a green blur as it collided with Solomon and sent him flying. Terry was ready with her pokeball pointed towards it, returning the scyther and completing the attack. "Now come out, Bailey." Shit.

The arcanine appeared with a howl, fire danced off his shining mane. His fangs were already blazing as he ran at Solomon, taking but ignoring a face-full of quills. He picked up Solomon by the horn and shook him like a ragdoll before slamming him onto the ground. He used a flamethrower on Solomon whilst he laid on the ground, searing off some of his skin and leaving a putrid poisonous smell in the air.

I returned Solomon. He could do absolutely nothing against Bailey, he was probably the worst matchup for Bailey on my team. And I might've needed him for the scyther or mareep as backup. If he was knocked out then Zevoa and Amari would be my only pokemon left against three pokemon. I'd have to go with the big gun, Zevoa.

I threw her pokeball at Bailey's forehead, letting Zevoa get a leg up on him immediately upon release. She appeared above him and used her weight to bring him to the ground. She tore into his mane and disappeared as he tried to snap on her. She reappeared to his side and body checked him, throwing him off guard for a dark pulse. "Nice combo, Zevoa. Now scary howl," I ordered. She cackled ominously, causing Bailey to back down in defense. Her eyes glowed a fiercer yellow, and her irises were a bloodier red. She ended the technique with a chilling howl to the heavens, the spectators cheered at my usage of a custom move, although some of them looked a little disheveled.

"You guys aren't only one's with tricks up their sleeves. Overheat-Blitz," Terry ordered. The arcanine erupted with a firestorm that blazed hot enough that I could feel it from nearly forty feet away. He charged Zevoa and rammed her. Before her skidding came to a halt, he leapt on top of her and _exploded._ A plume of fire twenty feet across blew up around them, but Zevoa used a sucker punch to avoid being hit point-blank of the attack. The bad part about sucker punch was that she could control where she appeared, but she always had to appear under a few feet away. That put her in range to get hit by the overheat, inflicting a massive amount of agony upon the hyena. The firestorm petered out, leaving a heavy-breathing arcanine and crispy mightyena behind. Zevoa charged a dark pulse, a very weak dark pulse, and fired it at the arcanine. He flinched at the attack, buying Zevoa an opportunity to slam her weight into the arcanine and knock him over. The attack really drained his energy, I noticed. He moved more sluggishly, his strikes were pathetic. Zevoa wasn't doing much better, though. She was bald underneath certain parts of her body, showing the black skin underneath her fur. The natural oils on her body weren't flammable, but they provided a thin shield against physical attacks. It allowed her to take minor scratches, bites and cuts, and it was the reason why she didn't get roadburn whenever she went skidding across the bridge.

They fought for a few more long seconds before breaking up, both of them ready to pass out. Bailey had chunks of fur taken out of his mane, one of his fangs was chipped too. Zevoa was a bit worse off, but not by much. They each looked two hits away from falling unconscious, which sucked for Bailey because he exhausted his fire pouch so early in the fight.

"Bailey, one last move. Close combat ," she ordered. The veins in his muscular body became pronounced, red hot blood ran through them and filled them with adrenaline. He growled deep and guttural, Zevoa pinned her ears onto her head and snarled in response. He barked and charged her, then pounced once he got close enough. She ran out of the way, he didn't realize with the rage clouding his vision that he was about to fly right over the bridge. Terry scrambled for her pokeball and returned him. I even let out a sigh of relief, Bailey was a good pokemon, it would suck to see him pass like that. It would tear Terry to shreds, too.,

"2-Floyd, 1-Terry," I announced with a grin. She rubbed her temples, probably thinking of some strategy. All I knew was that she had a scyther, one of the fastest pokemon I'd ever met. Whether it was strong or not, it still had that going for it.

"You're gonna eat your words," Terry scoffed. She sent out the scyther in question, who once again intimidated everyone in the audience with its fearsome expression. "Swords dance, Goblin," she commanded it. It scrapped its blades together, getting them as sharp as possible to cut down the remainder of my team. Not if I could help it.

"Zevoa, ice fang," her incisors froze over into icicles, which she used to plunge into the scythers side. It hissed and knocked back Zevoa with the back of it's blade, then slashed her across the chest once, completing the combo and pushing her to her limit. I returned my starter and sent out Solomon. He was relatively healthy, and although it was extremely quick, it wasn't very bulky. It would go down to enough poison, I knew.

"Thunderbolt, slow it down then load it with poison!" Solomon zapped it with a thunderbolt to the wings, burning them up with the electrical energy. He shot a barrage of quills, only a few actually struck-home though. The scyther was already creating clones. If he could use his seismic sensing, then it wouldn't be a problem. As long as you had weight and were on the ground, you'd be detectable. He'd only be able to use it if he knew ground types moves, though.

"Ice beam, aim for the floors," I told him. He shot the beam at the ground, making it icy and slippery. The scyther flew at Solomon, twirling rapidly to slash him repeatedly. He used a close-ranged thunderbolt, shredding a hole through its wing. It hissed and backed off, but Solomon charged and shoved his horn into its abdomen. Unlike the slowpoke, the scyther didn't have huge amounts of fat and blubber protecting its vitals. All it had was a thin thorax that was easily penetrated through by Solomon's horn, and now it had a body full of toxins.

The scyther used its jaws to snap on Solomon's horn and viciously shake it. A lot of pokemon tried that whenever they fought him. It was fragile, the intricacies of tubes and veins that let it carry toxins and eject them didn't leave room for any enforced fibers, but it never cracked or splintered. Apparently the scyther wasn't playing around. The appendage was cracked down the middle, poisons were leaking down the shaft and dripping into his eyes.

It was going to be a waiting game. The scyther was on a clock, it didn't take long for Solomon's poisons to seriously injure a pokemon. Solomon was now down one of his main senses, he had to really on his smell to guide him. I decided to let him handle the rest of the battle, I couldn't use visual cues to command him, which was usually how I did it. This battle was grounded now, though. Under such intense sunlight, the ice covering the bridge under us was melting. It gave me an idea.

But first, I'd have to let the poison take effect. The scyther sprinted up to him, the way its body moved on the ground was similar to a velociraptor. Solomon's horn and it's blades met. They clacked against each other, sending poisonous juices and blood everywhere. The scyther was a master sword fighter, but Solomon was no pushover. He backed up and charged several times, directing all of his weight into every stab. He got a shred of his ear taken off by the blades, eliciting a wail from him.

He used a thunderbolt on the melted ice, electrocuting the scyther where he stood. It wasn't enough to bring it down, but static bounced off of it even after the attack was already over. The insect was slowed down enough that Solomon could keep up, he was able to hit even more of his attacks, but I feared he'd lose before the scyther did. Terry and I were screaming commands, giving encouragement to our pokemon. They barely listened, too focused on the fight. Solomon was a prideful pokemon. It sounded dumb, since they were both merely animals, but he couldn't stand losing. If the scyther was an alpha male, like Solomon was, then it would fight to the fullest to win this battle.

They both got their wishes, I guess. It cut too deep. Solomon fell about the same time it did. Fatigue had set in for both combatants, they just couldn't take it any longer. My little king was down, which left Amari to defend the honor of our team.

Everyone in the crowd were on the edge of their seats, it had gone silent. A few of them had stopped eating their snacks and were simply devoting their full attention to the fight. Amari hissed defensively, he was still just a baby. Her mareep was released, it looked like a simple sheep. A minor difference in the fact that it had two swirled cones on the sides of it's head, and a bulb at the end of its tail. "Floyd! Mareep wool is flame resistant!" Someone in the crowd yelled. Alright then, I'd have to change my tactics based off of that piece of information.

"Thanks," I waved at the person. Some random kid, but still, everyone knew something you didn't. I never fought a mareep, so that was useful. "Amari, confuse ray," I ordered.

"Mary, thunder wave," Terry ordered. She looked nervous. Like she didn't have complete faith in her pokemon. It did look like something was missing in its brain. It's eyes were blank, it looked young, not battle-ready like Terry's other pokemon. It then hit me, we both saved the babies of our teams for last, which meant that she didn't have the extraordinary team that I thought.

A tiny jolt of electricity struck Amari and sent shivers throughout his body. His muscles spasmed, he struggled to stand up straight. Paralysis. "Amari, confuse ray!" I ordered him again. A ghostly ray floated slowly up to the mareep, hitting its face and fading away. Now they were both statused. "Flamethrower." He used a weak stream of fire to douse the mareep, lighting it up but otherwise leaving it perfectly fine. They trade ranged attacks for a while, before the mareep decided to take things straight to its opponent. It tripped a few times on its way to Amari, but it was able to stomp him once his paralysis kicked in inconveniently. "Ember, aim for that, Amari!" I pointed at the tip of its tail, the bulb. I knew that every electric type had somewhere on their body that stored their electricity, static bounced inside of it like a tesla coil. He pelted it with small fireballs, making the mareep falter and take a knee.

"No more electric, Mary, use cotton spore!" Terry commanded. Her mareep shook wildly, causing balls of fluff to fly off. Amari was close enough for a few to hit him, they stuck, slowing down his movements even further. "Now tackle!" It dragged its hoof against the ground before slamming into Amari. I heard something snap and I ran to his aid. He was knocked out. I heard murmurs in the crowd, before everyone descended on Terry, the winner.

I heard a few people talking, someone said something along the lines of, 'Cool fight, but that last one was boring. Like watching toddlers box.' I laughed a little to myself. I could admit, it might've been a little boring. Once they were older, though, an ampharos versus a magmortar would be an awesome fight.

Terry pushed past the swarm of people congratulating her and strode up to me. "You know that was situational as hell, right?"

I shook my head, "No, you won."

"Well, if this would've gone a bit differently, you would've. Think about that before you go and cry yourself to sleep tonight," she winked and grinned at me.

I gave advice to beginner trainers that watched the match, spoke to some of the older ones about the mistakes I made during our match. Terry went back to her room in the pokemon center, she wanted to heal her pokemon's injuries. One of the trainers said something about how Solomon needed a better diet of poisonous plants and roots to make his toxins as potent as possible. Someone gave me a technical machine for Will-o-Wisp that I could use on Amari, just in case I got into another situation where I was unable to do direct damage to my opponent. When I went back to the center, I decided to get a little more serious about training. I'd need to stop thinking of Amari as a weak link, as the baby. Every pokemon on my team needed to be equaly as powerful. Terry agreed on that front. She said she relied too heavily on Bailey, similar to what I did to Zevoa. We knew we could accomplish our goals within the next two months.

 **This chapter isn't fully edited, so it might be a bit odd to read at certain parts, but tell me if you see something odd in your reviews. I got about 75% through with editing, but I was too busy to do the rest. Also, I made changes to some previous chapters, including combining two chapters into one. I'm going to keep going through and chopping this story up and putting it back together. I'm just not satisfied with how I used to write. I think I'm slowly getting better, my next project will be a far better quality than this one. I can't share any details, but once I get to the halfway point of this story, I'll be revealing more details.**

 **For now, thank you to all who reviewed. For new readers who made it all the way to this chapter, welcome to the most inconsistent story on the site. I upload once a week for a month or two, then Satan gives me a call and I have to make a trip to hell, where there is no wi-fi, dogs creep around chewing up laptop chargers, and the only way to protect myself from the constant pressures of chores is building a barricade with the amount of homework I procrastinate on doing. Please review, favorite and follow if you enjoyed.**


	29. Chapter 29

Terry and I sat across from each other on a bench facing toward the water. Our pokemon frolicked in the waves, Makhai taunted Bailey by splashing him or pulling him into the water. He was always punished by a blast of fire. Amari curled up in ball on a rock and sunbathed, Solomon enjoyed some of the underwater plant life. Goblin the scyther zipped through the air, high up in the sky cleaving through bird pokemon and devouring them before they touched the ground. Meanwhile I just sipped on a slushy.

My starter, Zevoa, sat loyally by my side. "Go have fun, girl," I told her. She didn't respond, she was in a bad mood. I wasn't exactly sure why, but I thought it was because the rest of the team were outshining her in the strength department. I had no idea that she took pride in her skills, but I made sure to pay extra attention to her. As much as I loved the rest of my team, Zevoa was still my number one.

"You know, I'm noticing a dynamic in your team. Tell me if I'm wrong," Terry said. I nodded, signalling her to continue. "Zevoa is the oldest sister, Solomon is the emotional socially awkward teen, Makhai is the annoying little brother, and Amari is the baby that everyone coddles, right?"

"And I'm the single father struggling to take care of them," I finished for her. We both laughed and took sips of our drinks. "I guess your team would be more like soldiers, I've noticed. You've got Lt. Bailey, Sergeant Betsy, Private Mary, then Goblin would be the one guy who went rogue and doesn't follow the rules, and Bailey has to kill him in the end. Right?"

As if one cue, the scyther swooped down and caught someone's squirtle and lifted it in the air, eliciting colorful words from Terry. He dropped the turtle, causing it to fall from at least sixty feet above the water. "I think it's about time for you to take a rest," she said as she returned her pokemon. I had a flashback to when Zevoa last did something like that, about three days ago.

"So, when're you gonna challenge the gym?" Terry asked. "She shouldn't be too hard, they're just water pokemon, after all."

I sighed, "It's not that I don't think I could beat her at my level, it'll just be so awkward. How do I know she isn't like Clara? She might not even let me in."

"Gyms can't refuse anyone with a training license from stepping into their doors. I mean, you really think _anyone_ would allow _me_ into their gym?"

"I guess you're right," I said as I threw my drink into the public trashbin. "Amari, Makhai, Solomon," I called them over. Makhai was the first to get to me, followed by Solomon then Amari. Makhai was a foot taller than before, and he had no tail to speak of. It was difficult to get used to at first, but his tail hindered his movements, while also giving him mobility through his ability to latch onto objects with it. Without it, he was faster, but he had to climb using only his hands and feet. His arms were no longer covered with creamy fur, showing the brown-skin underneath. His biceps were vascular and looked like they would tear through his skin. When he evolved, his boost in speed was tremendous. So fast that when he battled he could hardly keep up with himself, he'd trip and crash into walls. I had to bind weights to his legs and arms

His temperament was mostly the same. But when he got angry, it was far more difficult to break him out of it. I harnessed that passionate anger and made it into an attack. Outrage. Probably the strongest attack in his arsenal.

Solomon was only slightly bigger, but he could also stand on his hind legs. He couldn't walk while like that, but it showed that he was making progress towards his next evolution. His horn was disproportionately large. Terry said that she heard it would grow at a faster rate than the rest of his body and that it probably wasn't even at it's biggest length.

Amari made the most progress as far as strength and size went. I guess that was mostly because he was only a duckling a few months ago. The size of a goose, his crown of bulbs had combined and became only a few bumps across the top of his head. The tip of his tail was engulfed in fire compared to the small flame that was there a while ago. He adopted a more carnivorous diet of fish and small mammals. My team were now seventy-five percent carnivores, so they could share one large kill instead of having to scour for their own specific meals.

I returned them all except for Solomon since he was the most well-behaved around a lot of people. Amari was timid and Makhai was aggressive, Zevoa just had a naturally scary appearance. "We're heading out to the gym?" Terry asked as she hopped onto Bailey's saddle. She offered me a ride, but I declined.

"Yeah, I'll follow you. Just let me go catch a rapidash," I joked. Terry laughed and rode off, crossing the boardwalk and entering the city. I strode through the city past crowds of people heading to the beach with surfboards and boats dragging behind their cars. I saw so many water pokemon over the coarse of those months that I wondered how I never decided to catch one. Everyone had a horsea, a slowpoke or a psyduck. Sometimes I'd see politoads, but they were only a little rarer. I kind of wanted something more exotic, from somewhere other than Kanto. Three of my pokemon were native to Kanto, it'd be good to have some variety.

The city streets were paved with asphalt, although they had a thin veil of sand blanketing them. Nobody seemed to care, they were constantly on the move. There was no such thing as a bad day to be in Cerulean, I guess. The change of climate was huge on the opposite sides of . Pewter had blizzards during the winter, whereas Cerulean only had snowflakes float from the heavens and gently caress the ground. It was beautiful. As I arrived at the gym, it's outward appearance was even a bit different. Far larger, glass roofs that blindingly reflected the sun, Wingull perched on the edges of the roof. I pushed through the glass doors to find Terry giving the evil eye to the gym leader as she did laps in the pool with young kids imitating her movements. Actually, it was less like a pool and more like a pond. It had a green tint to it. Grass grew out of the solid ground surrounding it, ferns and lilypads broke through the surface.

The leader was a blonde with an excellently built swimmers body, she had to be younger than the other leaders I met, they were both in their late twenties or early thirties, she appeared to be in her late teens.

A gym trainer met me at the door, a redhead man who also had a nice figure. His features were sharp and mature looking. He looked like he'd be a fire trainer more so than a water one, nevertheless, he was probably a great battler. "No need to show us your license, we know exactly who you are," he waved me off as I reached for my verification.

"Well I'm looking for a battle," I said.

"You'll be fighting me," he replied simply. "Leader Gloria, clear the pool. Floyd is here," he yelled. The woman nodded and led the children out of the area and handed them towels to dry off with. I saw a kid stare at me in disbelief, like he wanted to say something but couldn't find the words. Leader Gloria led him away before he could.

Soon, everyone who was standing idly in the gym took their seats on the stands. There were four row stands on each side that stretched from one end of the facility to the other. The gym was big enough to fit a full-grown onix inside of it comfortably, which was a huge statement. I had heard that water pokemon were the biggest types of pokemon. That must've been why the gym was so big.

Leader Gloria watched from the sidelines. She was oddly close to Terry even though they clearly had a distaste for each other. Terry just kept her eyes on me and ignored her. People poured into the building until there were about thirty people on each side. There were obviously mixed emotions, some came to see me win. Most to see me lose. I'd hopefully prove them wrong.

It was big and loud enough in the building that he had to use a megaphone to be heard. "We will each be using four pokemon, with the condition that at least half of them can swim or maneuver within or above the water," he paused for a moment before continuing. "You cannot use electricity directly on the water, nor can you pollute it with poison attacks. You may use a fire-type to superheat the water, or an ice type to freeze it, though."

"Leader Gloria requested for me to take the battle for private reasons, so for those who do not know, I am her gym trainer Bryan Turner. I am nearly as qualified to battle this trainer as she is, so do not worry. This battle will start whenever the challenger is ready."

I reached for my pokeballs, but I felt someone grab my arm. Terry was behind me. She leaned in close to whisper into my ear, "He won't be going easy," she said.

"Well obviously. So far none of them have, it's because they want to challenge my level of skill," I told her.

"No, I mean he'll _really_ let you have it. He might even use one of his pokemon from his League team. They think you're a big shot prodigy trainer, you've got a reputation, you know," she whispered. "Fought an onix before you had your first badge, brawled with some rangers, stuff like that, I'm just saying, it'll be a lot harder than my match was," and with that, she got off my platform and took a seat.

"I'm ready!" I yelled. Well, I thought I was, but it turns out I wasn't. The gym trainer tossed out an ultra ball, and the pokemon that appeared basically confirmed exactly what Terry said. He'd actually be trying to win. It was an alligator, about seventeen feet from head to tail with red spikes going down its back. It's arms were like meaty tree-branches, it's tail could probably snap me in two if it actually swung it at me. I had no idea how to beat it.

Solomon was already out and standing behind me silently, but I decided against using him. He wasn't a strong swimmer, _Amari_ was better at it than he was, as long as Amari kept his tail from touching the water. Makhai was so dense with muscle that he sunk like a brick. Zevoa was very quick and agile even when completely submerged.

"Dragon dance," Bryan commanded calmly. His feraligatr rose from the water, showing its full body off. A misty pinkish red aura enveloped the reptile. It's tail slammed against the surface of the water, creating a wave that was probably bigger than it should've been. I became wet from over fifty feet away. "I'll try and go easy. Dragon claw," it's claws grew immensely before it dropped back into the pond and shot like a torpedo after Zevoa.

"Sucker punch, girl," I commanded. As it's claw impacted her, she disappeared. She appeared on its back and tore off a chunk of its shoulder. It couldn't turn around and swat her off, so she continued to maul its back. Her thunder fang sent electrified pulses through its bloodstream.

"Dive, Gill!" The feraligatr plunged into the water. For a few seconds the water was quiet. Zevoa soared out of the water with the feraligatr trailing after her. As they rocketed towards the ceiling, it raised its arm in an uppercut motion, a torrent of water raised from the pond and crashed into Zevoa. She yelped in agony as she took the full brunt of the waterfall attack. The two pokemon fell back into the water, the feraligatr's landing was far more graceful, though. Zevoa frantically swam to the solid terra on the edge of the battle-zone. The feraligatr leered at her and made a deep bellow from the base of its throat. The echo could be heard over the sound of the audience. Zevoa cackled. The battle commenced once more, now on the solid ground. Wild slashes and bites, Zevoa attacked its legs, hindering its swimming ability. It just used the immense power behind its onslaught to deal a ridiculous amount of damage. Even a grazing of its claws cut a few inches deep.

"Use another dragon dance," Bryan ordered. His pokemon once again began to rise from the earth and coat itself with red aura.

"Mimic!" I told Zevoa. She copied his movement, although her use of the technique was more strained. It, however, was just as potent. She hit the ground and blitzed the feraligatr immediately with her newfound speed.

"Hydro pump!" Water gushed from its mouth, but Zevoa avoided it completely. She mimicked it and used her own hydro pump, a water sac temporarily grew in her stomach, allowing her to summon the a technique equally as powerful. "Thrash!" Bryan was getting more distraught, I could hear it in his voice. The feraligatr roared and rapidly swiped at Zevoa. It's claws were twice their length, its fangs were ice-cold popsicles. Zevoa was ducking the attacks, but she met a crusher in the form of an aqua tail. It swept her feet from under her. I thought I had heard a snap.

It picked up Zevoa and tossed her into the water, but she vanished before landing. "Poison fang, girl!" She crunched it's shoulder again. The feraligatr was badly poisoned, it hopped up and landed on its back to get her off. She disappeared and materialized on its exposed belly, she shredded it's stomach with her claws. Blood spurted out, it hissed and seized her with it's large, meaty claws.

It slammed the mightyena repeatedly, then ended the combo with a soccer kick that actually made her _skip_ across the pond. Before she could sink, I recalled her and sent out Makhai. I'd just have to avoid sending him into the water, then we'd be golden.

"Close combat," I ordered Makhai. Within a split-second, he was pounding the feraligatr with fists moving faster than I could follow. Ribs cracked under the force of his strikes. Teeth flew from its mouth. Blood splattered the ground where they stood. He stopped his assault, the feraligatr was heaving as blood surged from its open wounds. "Meditate, calm down," I told him. He nodded and gave me a thumbs up. He closed his eyes and breathed out. He pressed his fists together and sat down cross-legged. The feraligatr stood in wait, slowly backing away in fear of the imminent danger. It was one step away from touching the water when Makhai screeched. He bounded for the feraligatr and broke the feraligatr. That was the best way to describe how powerful the strike to it's gut was. It flew all the way across the water and into the stands, where people dived out of the way as it crashed into the seats. It didn't move at all.

"Return, Gill," Bryan pointed his pokeball at it, returning the feraligatr with a red laser.

The crowd cheered so loudly I could barely think. Even the ones who doubted me were admitted that the knock-out punch delivered by Makhai was epic. Bryan threw his next pokeball directly at the platform he stood on. A blubbery-seal with a small horn on its forehead flopped around and barked, it's trainer patted its head and said something to it, and it floundered into the water. I had no idea where it was. It was concealed under the green tint of the pond. Makhai scanned over the surface, looking for even the smallest shadow. He could track things using his newly found enhanced senses far better than he previously was able to. It was a shock to him when he first evolved, the monumental boost was more of a burden than a strength.

If we couldn't find it, we'd have to play the waiting game. "Makhai, bulk up," I ordered him. He flexed his arms and hardened his physique. His trapezius muscles showed even through his fur, the stress mark on it's forehead was extra pronounced. He gritted his fangs and made a low growling sound.

"Do something!" A person in the crowd yelled. A swarm of people agreed with him, I wished that I could actually get the match going a little faster too.

"Makhai, drop on him!" Makhai looked around the surface, once he locked onto his target, he bounced straight into the air, then plunged into the water headfirst. He wouldn't be able to swim back to the surface, but he could pin the seel to the bottom of the pond and beat the shit out of it. If Bryan the gym trainer was smart, he'd return his pokemon before then so it didn't drown. But, Makhai could only hold his breath for five minutes. When I realized that he was unable to swim, I tried to work on the strength in his lungs so that just in case he was caught underwater, he'd still have a chance.

There was a collective gasp in the audience, they probably also knew primeape were unable to swim. The seel popped out of the water with Makhai riding it. It's skin had claw marks up and down It squealed in pain. It tried to shake him off, but he was far too heavy, and his attacks were too fierce. It neared the solid-grassy ground and Makhai stood up and let go of the pokemon. It was knocked out from bloodloss, and it didn't even score a single hit.

"Alright, you know what? Leader Gloria told me to give you a challenge, I thought I was, but apparently you're a tough guy, though. Mangrove, let's go," he recalled his seel and released a hulking beast with large meaty arms, it's back was wider than three grown men lying side-by-side. The size of its arms forced it to stand hunchback on its knuckles, sort of like a gorilla. Two fins went from its massive head down to it's back. There was one thing it could be, a swampert.

The swampert lumbered into the water and sank into it. It's fins broke through the surface as it snaked through the water over to my side of the field. As the water got shallower, Makhai tensed. It grumbled as it appeared, Makhai used a close combat where every hit landed, but it seemed like it did nothing. It's thick hull soaked up hits like a punching bag, but one hit sent Makhai flying into the stands. He didn't break any seats like the feraligatr did, he landed gently on his toes and bounded back to the ground. The swampert picked up a handful of mud and chucked it at Makhai, he easily dodged it. It chucked a barrage of sludge at him, only a few hit him, but they went directly into his eyes.

"Use another hammer arm, Mangrove. Beat it into the ground," Bryan commanded. It lurched up to him and rocked Makhai with a swing that squashed him against the ground. Those bulk-ups were helpful, as he didn't get knocked out immediately. Him got back to his feet and caught the next hit. The swampert pushed its full weight to try and crush Makhai, but he pushed back. Makhai had such a small body, but he had so much damn muscle it was ridiculous. He was just as strong as any fighting type. He gritted his teeth and heaved it overhead and slammed it against the mud. Makhai maintained his grip on the swampert and tried it again, it opened it's mouth and a hydro pump hit Makhai point-blank.

He stumbled back and screeched. "Outrage!" His claws and incisors grew tremendously with night blue energy. He slammed into the swampert like a speeding bullet. It stumbled to the side and powerless against the constant bludgeoning.

"Counter it, Mangrove."

"Makhai, stop!" I yelled, but it was pretty much over for him. The swampert was already glowing crimson, one powerful ending-kick from Makhai sealed his fate. I was proud that Makhai was able to knock out two pokemon, either way though, we'd still win. I tossed out Solomon's pokeball. His huffed as always upon appearance, then backed away at the sight of water.

"Poison-sicle," I commanded Solomon. All the quills on his back went straight into the swampert's chest. I figured out that using all the quills at once heightens the chance to poison, which opens up for the rest of our combo, "Venoshock!"

An unavoidable attack from the inside. The poisonous chemicals exploded from the swampert's mouth and other orifices, purple fluid's soaked the floor around it.

"Ice beam to its face," I said calmly. The shot of ice put a sheet over its head, the swampert was on the ground, slowly dying from the poison and ice. Maybe if I hadn't used Solomon, or if I hadn't strictly been training Solomon's poisons for the past two months, then he might've been able to actually hit Solomon before losing. The rest of the battle was quick, his last pokemon was easily dispatched.

The crowd cheered my name, Bryan went to the back to heal his team. Leader Gloria walked up and spoke to me personally, "Is this how Floyd North battles?"

"Apparently."

She laughed dryly, "I'm not giving you this badge."

"Yes you are, league rules state-"

She cut me off, "If you defeat the gym leader then you are honoured the gym badge of the city. There was a reason I made Bryon battle you. Come back once you're done with the circuit, I'll give you a real battle, boy," she glared at me before she turned around and walked away at the same time Terry showed up. She had to push her way through the people that clustered around me.

"Congrats!" She high-fived me, "That _looked_ difficult, a feraligatr and a swampert? You didn't even struggle, and those might've been from his main team!" She seemed excited.

"Was yours harder?" I asked.

She shook her head, "No, it was actually pretty easy, but Gloria only used pokemon that were a little above my level. They have some high expectations for you, Floyd," she strolled towards the glass doors, beckoning for me to follow.

The last time I walked out of a gym, something bad happened. Since then, Kanto relations had gotten worse. Terry took me to a fast food place with a simple menu of mostly burgers and fries.

As we ate our celebratory lunch, a debacle took place. Two rangers came up to us and sat down, one next to me and the other beside Terry. It was a diner and the seat was a crescent shaped couch with a table in the center. The shape of our seat meant that we were trapped in by the men, and neither seemed friendly. The one next to me took my burger and ate a bite before speaking, "So you beat Leader Gloria, huh?"

"No, I beat Bryan," I answered. My hand was already on Amari's pokeball, since he was the healthiest on my team at the moment. Terry was antsy, her hand on something else. She had purchased a pistol for self-defense purposes a month ago.

He grabbed a handful of fries and stuffed them in his mouth and let me see the mush in his mouth. I dropped my fork with a _Clack!_

"I paid for this."

"With Kanto Crown," the man next to Terry snapped.

 **Here is a chapter, not heavily edited but skimmed over so it's at least readable. I'm so extremely busy, funny thing is that I'm not doing too good in my writing class when I'd say that I'm probably the most experienced writer in my grade. Anyway, definitely not going to be frequent updates, so don't hold your breath. I'm not going to cancel this though. Follow, favorite, and review if you enjoyed. If you hate this story, show me by favoriting and following this, stay updated on the current chapters so you can hate on those too. Peace.**


End file.
